It was almost a year ago that Martha Fischer covered the upcoming labor of familial love -- The Best Time of Our Lives. Written by Sharman Macdonald, the film covers the explosive romantic rivalry between poet Dylan Thomas, his wife, his childhood friend and love and her husband -- and it stars Macdonald's daughter and famous female pirate, Keira Knightley. Mum recently spoke to the Guardian and not only debunked the lesbian rumors that surfaced recently, but also mentioned her next project. In what is quickly becoming a theme, Macdonald is working on a romantic slice of writer Ernest Hemingway's life. X-Files star Gillian Anderson had initiated the project, and Macdonald is hoping that she'll still be interested in starring.

Gearing up to finishing the first draft, the screenplay features the relationship between Papa and his third wife Martha Gellhorn. This was after Elizabeth Hadley Richardson, who was the grandmother of Margaux and Mariel, and Pauline Pfeiffer, who pulled out Hemingway's "last cent" after the creation of the first residential pool in Key West. Gellhorn was a writer and war correspondent who traveled with Ernest in Europe during the late 1930s. They married in 1940, and their brief and tumultuous marriage dissolved during the second World War. (You can read more about Gellhorn and her thoughts on Hemingway here.)

Anderson only has one movie in the works right now, so barring some unforeseen complications, I can't see why she wouldn't still be interested in the project. Now we have Thomas coming to the screen and Hemingway. Will Macdonald continue the soap opera-reminiscent writer theme? Who would she center on next? Perhaps she could switch it up, drop the soap opera and conquer the tragic love story of Gore Vidal and Jimmie Trimble.

It's too bad that this Dylan Thomas biopic is filming now and not 10-20 years ago, because Tony Goldwyn looks a hell of a lot like the poet. Nevertheless, I guess that Matthew Rhys is a decent subsitute. No, this isn't Jonathan Rhys Meyers, the Match Point star. He's got his own bag of period pieces to star in. This Rhys is the man who plays Kevin Walker on that television show, Brothers and Sisters, and who played Demitrius in Julie Taymor's flipping wonderful Titus. With him and Cillian Murphy joining the cast, we've got four players in a rather dangerous true story.

The film will center on a love triangle between Thomas, his wife Caitlin (Lindsay Lohan) and his childhood friend Vera Phillips (Keira Knightley), who was married to a man named William Killick (who will be played by Murphy). Less than happy about his wife's close relationship with Thomas, and being less-than-centered after a military mission in Greece, he grabbed a machine gun, a grenade, and then attacked the poet's house. While no one was hurt, it's a bit of emotional overkill, don't you think? And then there's Murphy cast as a crazed man under great stress. I just can't imagine it! Okay, I can. With the cheeky title of The Best Time of Our Lives, the feature will begin shooting this May. So, now the question becomes: will production run smoothly, or should we get some popcorn and prepare for La Lohan Round two, three, or whatever number it is now?

Okay, so this story is bound to drum up interest from teenage males everywhere. According to MTV, Lindsay Lohan (whose maturity on screen is nothing like her immaturity behind the scenes) has signed on to star opposite Keira Knightley (who's also rumored to have a starring role in Jurassic Park IV) in The Best Time of Our Lives. Pic, which was written by Knightley's mom, revolves around a night in the life of poet Dylan Thomas.

Based on real-life events, story details what happened when Thomas and his wife Caitlin came under attack when their friend Vera Phillips (Knightley) and her eventual husband William Killick "opened fire on the Thomas home with a machine gun and a hand grenade." Man, poetry was so violent back in the day, huh? Lohan compared her role in the film to that of Clara Bow, the sexy but scarred silent film star. Says Lohan about the character (who, mind you, has a kid), "[Keira] is older than me, but she kind of has a mysterious relationship with my lover. And then there's somewhat of a lesbian undertone." Poetry, hand grenades, lesbian undertones -- why am I suddenly dying to see this flick?

[via Coming Soon]

According to London's ever-reliable Daily Mail, Keira Knightley is set to star in The Best Time of Our Lives, a film about a very narrow slice of poet Dylan Thomas' life. Despite a schedule so packed that it was initially thought she wouldn't be able to appear in the film at all, Knightley determinedly moved things around, and successfully freed up a chunk of time big enough to fit it in. Her desperate interest in the film, however, comes not from its subject or cast, but rather from its writer, a playwright named Sharman Macdonald -- or, as Knightley calls her, Mom. Or Mum, probably. Anyway, you get the idea: mom wrote a screenplay, and Keira is damn well going to star in the movie.

The film will address "a terrifying incident in 1945 involving Dylan Thomas, his wife Caitlin [Knightley] and another couple - Vera Phillips, a friend of the poet's from his Swansea school days, and her husband William Killick." Apparently one night, Thomas did something to piss Killick off, so he prompted showed up at the poet's house firing a machine gun and threatening "to hurl a grenade through a window." Holy crap. Who knew poetry was such a dangerous calling?

Production is expected to being next January, after Knightley finishes her work on Pirates of the Caribbean 3.

[via Dark Horizons, Keiraweb]