Keira Knightley in talks to star in sci-fi drama Conception

Keira Knightley is in talks to star in a new science-fiction drama, Conception.

The British actress is making plans to reunite with her Silent Night director Camille Griffin, who will write and direct, according to Deadline.

Conception is set in the near future, when an authoritarian British government takes control over parenting, with Knightley reportedly set to play an officious 'License Officer' who firmly believes in the harsh system she upholds until an unexpected event imperils her own status as a parent within the society she has sworn to uphold.

The Atonement star is herself a mother to two girls, Edie, born in 2015, and Delilah, born in 2019, and has previously spoken about how motherhood has changed her as an actress and her approach to roles.

She told Cover Media back in 2019: "My view of the world and the way that I play characters and the way that I see characters is different, because motherhood pretty much changes you fundamentally. So you can't not see the world differently and therefore see the characters differently."

Celine Rattray and Trudie Styler are producing through their Maven Screen Media firm - having also produced Silent Night.

That movie, a Christmas comedy also starring Matthew Goode, Annabelle Wallis, Lily-Rose Depp, and Griffin's son, Jojo Rabbit star Roman Griffin Davis, is due out in December.