British actress Imogen Poots (28 Weeks Later, Jane Eyre) has landed the sole female lead in the upcoming adaptation of Jess Walter’s best-selling novel Beautiful Ruins. Todd Field, whose debut and sophomore films (Little Children, In The Bedroom) both garnered several Oscar nominations, will direct.

The screenplay will be penned by both Todd Field and Jess Walter. Beautiful Ruins has sold over one million copies worldwide and was named an Entertainment Weekly ‘Best Book of 2012’. The story is set in 1962 during the filming of Cleopatra in Rome. Young actress Dee Moray (Poots) loses her job after becoming involved with four intriguing men – a studio executive, a World War II vet in the midst of writing his first novel, a hotel owner, and Richard Burton himself. The male leads have yet to be cast.

Todd Field is producing along with Brian Oliver, Patrick Milling Smith, Tyler Thompson, Brian Carmody as well as Cross Creek Pictures and Smuggler Films. Shooting is scheduled to begin off the coast of Italy in May 2014.

Poots is set to star in the DreamWorks big screen adaptation of the popular Electronic Arts video game Need For Speed, hitting theaters February 7th, 2014, and will also appear in Terrence Malick’s Knight of Cups with Christian Bale and Cate Blanchett, due in theaters in 2014.