AUSTRALIAN actress Cate Blanchett is to play Lake District storyteller Beatrix Potter in a forthcoming movie, according to film industry reports.

The actress won Golden Globe and Bafta awards for her lead role in 1998 film Elizabeth, and she plays the elf queen Galadriel in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

Film industry website Screendaily.com reports from the Cannes Film Festival that Blanchett has taken the lead role in Phoenix Pictures' Miss Potter, to be directed by Bruce Beresford, whose credits include Driving Miss Daisy, and the Pierce Brosnan film Evelyn.

It is believed the biopic will explore Beatrix Potter's private life, including her romance with Norman Warne, who died without warning of pernicious anaemia in 1905. The couple were engaged only briefly, and against Beatrix's parents' wishes.

World-renowned expert Judy Taylor, of the Beatrix Potter Society, told the Gazette: "There was some discussion about this film about two years ago now, I suppose, and we thought, oh how interesting, and nothing happened. But the company must have made some kind of announcement at Cannes."

Miss Taylor said she was "absolutely fascinated" by the film and looked forward to learning more about it. She said it would be the first major film about Beatrix Potter, although there had been some films made for television.

"One is always a little bit apprehensive," she said, "but Bruce Beresford is down to direct it, and he's such a good director. Driving Miss Daisy is a lovely film; he made that with such sympathy."

Shona Owen, of the National Trust, said production company Phoenix Pictures had not approached them about filming at Hill Top, the Near Sawrey farm bought by Beatrix Potter in summer 1905 with royalties from her "little books". They included The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin and The Tailor of Gloucester.

"Thinking about what they are planning to cover in the film it would be hard to imagine that they wouldn't be coming to the Lake District in some shape or form, but exactly what their plans are I don't know," she said.

"I'm sure at some stage one of their location scouts will pitch up on our doorstep."

May 23, 2003 09:30