King Lear a tragedy for Knightley, Paltrow and Watts

The credit crunch appears to have claimed its first major movie scalp. Gwyneth Paltrow, Naomi Watts, Keira Knightley (pictured from left) Sir Anthony Hopkins had all signed up for a film adaptation of Shakespeare's bloody tragedy King Lear, which was announced to a great fanfare of publicity at the Cannes film festival last year and was due to begin filming in the spring. Now the £25m movie has been cancelled - apparently because of problems with financing.

Although Ruby Films, the company behind the production, refuses to discuss exactly why the film has hit the buffers, the Daily Telegraph believes it might be "the first high-profile casualty of the recession in the movie business", ominously pointing out that if one of the world's most bankable stars - Knightley was positioned at number 42 in a recent Forbes power list - can't guarantee success what chance is there for lesser productions?

Knightley, 23, was due to play Cordelia, the youngest daughter of the King, who would have been portrayed by Sir Anthony. Paltrow was down for Regan, Lear's treacherous middle daughter, and Naomi Watts would have completed the cast as his eldest daughter, Goneril.

Meanwhile, Knightley still has a busy schedule. In the year ahead, she is due to appear in London Boulevard opposite Colin Farrell, a romance about an ex-con and a reclusive actress, Lillian Palmer, and will also play F Scott Fitzgerald's wife Zelda in a biopic called The Beautiful and the Damned. ·