June 5, 2013 - 12:31 AMT
Keira Knightley to join Benedict Cumberbatch in “The Imitation Game”

Keira Knightley is in talks to star opposite Benedict Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game, The Hollywood Reporter said.

Morten Tyldum is directing the indie drama, which sees Black Bear Pictures adapting the book Alan Turing: The Enigma.

Turing (Cumberbatch) was a U.K. mathematician and cryptographer who helped crack the German enigma code during the final years of World War II, helping the Allies to victory. He was later prosecuted by the government for being a homosexual and committed suicide.

Knightley will play a woman from a very conservative background who not only forms a complicated relationship with Turing but is there for him until the end.

Teddy Schwarzman is producing with Nora Grossman and Ido Ostrowsky of Ampersand Pictures.

The budget for the indie is in the $15 million range.

Knightley was last seen starring in Anna Karenina and next co-stars in this fall’s Jack Ryan with Chris Pine.