Keira Knightley is to star in a new film adaptation of Shakespearean tragedy King Lear. he will play Cordelia, the youngest daughter of the King, who will be portrayed by Sir Anthony Hopkins. Gwyneth Paltrow is tipped to take the role of Regan, Lear's treacherous middle daughter. His eldest daughter, Goneril, is yet to be cast. The $35 million film was announced at the Cannes Film Festival and will feature epic battle sequences, according to its makers.  There have been more than a dozen adaptations of King Lear, most notably in a 1983 version starring Sir Laurence Olivier and Dame Diana Rigg. This latest film will also be judged against a Channel 4 adaptation, to be screened this Christmas, based on the recent and highly acclaimed Royal Shakespeare Company production starring Sir Ian McKellen as Lear and Romola Garai as Cordelia. The play made the headlines due to McKellen's nude scene, which will be retained for the television version. It is set to be a busy year for Knightley, 23, the Oscar-nominated star of Atonement and Pride And Prejudice. Next month sees the release of The Edge of Love, with Sienna Miller, in which she plays a lover of the poet Dylan Thomas. She also stars in The Duchess, a lavish costume drama based on the life of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Several other projects were announced at the film festival yesterday, including an adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray starring Ben Barnes, currently thrilling cinema audiences as Prince Caspian in the Narnia sequel. The BBC's film unit is to make a sequel to The Other Boleyn Girl, based on The Boleyn Inheritance, another book by Philippa Gregory. The story is told through the eyes of two of Henry VIII's wives, Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard. Cult television series The Mighty Boosh is to be developed into a film, and there will be a sequel to last year's St Trinian's movie, with Rupert Everett reprising his role as the headmistress. -