Drama is a fictionalised adaptation of Angel Face, the bestselling book about Amanda Knox, the US student accused on the murder of her UK flatmate Meredith Kercher.

Shooting starts next week in Italy on The Face of an Angel, directed by Michael Winterbottom and starring Kate Beckinsale (The Aviator), Daniel Bruhl (Rush) and Cara Delevingne (Kids in Love). The cast also includes Valerio Mastandrea.

A fictionalised adaptation of Angel Face, the bestselling book by Barbie Latza Nadeau, the film is produced by Melissa Parmenter and Riccardo Tozzi. The script is written by Paul Viragh.

WestEnd Films is handling worldwide sales, with BBC Films producing alongside Revolution Films.

The fictionalised story centres on the murder of a British student in Tuscany that leads to the trial and conviction of her American flat mate and Italian boyfriend in controversial circumstances.

The public interest around the case attracts once successful, but now struggling filmmaker Thomas (Brul), to be commissioned to write a film – ‘The Face of an Angel’, based on a book by Simone Ford (Beckinsale), an American journalist who covered the case. From Rome they head to Siena to research the film.

The official production synopsis adds: “Thomas has also recently separated from his wife in a bitter divorce and left his nine-year old daughter in Los Angeles. As his life unravels, he becomes increasingly disturbed by the dark medieval atmosphere surrounding the case and begins to fall into his own personal hell.

“Like Dante journeying through the Inferno in the Divine Comedy, with Simone as his guide to the tragedy of the murder, he begins a relationship with student Melanie (Delevingne). This is a beautiful, unrequited love where Melanie provides solace to Thomas and acts as a guide to his own heart.

“He starts to question what is more important to him, solving an unsolvable crime and writing the film, or returning back to the daughter he has left behind.”

The Face of an Angel is shooting in Siena and Rome, from Nov 11 until Dec 21.

The book, which inspired the film, recounts the story of Amanda Knox, an American woman who was convicted of the murder of Meredith Kercher in Italy in 2009. She served four years of a 26-year sentence before the murder conviction was overturned in Oct 2011.

However, in March this year, Knox’s acquittal was overturned by the Italian Supreme Court, sending the case back to the lower court for reconsideration.

Raffaele Sollecito, Knox’s boyfriend at the time of the murder, was also found guilty of the murder but had his conviction overturned by an appeal. This decision was also reversed in March.

Knox’s retrial on the charge of murder began at the end of September.

Winterbottom has previously stated his film is resolutely not about Knox. “It’s a modern day version of Dante,” he said.