Kate Beckinsale dismisses controversy over Amanda Knox case I can't actually drive, but then I got a call from my manager to say 'can you learn to drive in the next four days? I don't think it would be a very good idea - I'd probably end up killing myself and others, especially in Rome. Maybe if it was Arkansas or somewhere it would be less daunting. My parents have a place in Umbria and it took my mother about seven years to summon up the courage to drive from the airport to our house. Her driving scenes in the film will instead be mocked up. The actress will play a role based on that of Barbie Latza Nadeau, an American journalist who covered the killing of Miss Kercher in Perugia in 2007 and the conviction and subsequent acquittal of "Foxy Knoxy" and her then Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, for murder and sexual assault. The murder case - which is still grinding through the Italian courts system with an appeal against Miss Knox's acquittal - sharply divided public opinion in Britain and the US. Supporters of Miss Knox saw her as an innocent abroad who became the unwitting victim of a dysfunctional judicial system, while Miss Kercher's backers regarded the American student as a promiscuous vamp who tried to cover up her alleged role in the crime. The opposing trans-Atlantic camps set up sophisticated public relations machines to push their agendas and journalists who covered the case came in for abuse on email, blogs and in the Twitter-sphere if they were perceived to favour one side over the other. Ms Latza Nadeau, a Rome-based correspondent, followed the story for Newsweek, The Daily Beast and CNN and then wrote a book about the case, "Angel Face." The film, which will be called "The Face of an Angel," will be directed by Michael Winterbottom, 52, whose films include Welcome to Sarajevo and 24 Hour Party People. The 40-year-old actress, who lives in Los Angeles, knows central Italy well - her first film role was in 1993 in Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing, which was shot in Tuscany. At the time she was still a young student at Oxford University. Kate Beckinsale says that you won't see characters called Amanda Knox (L) and Meredith Kercher (R) She was "peripherally aware" of the Kercher murder before being picked for the role but has since been mugging up on the case by reading books, including Miss Knox's account, Waiting to be Heard, which was published earlier this year. I had quite a strong opinion on it, but then the more books I read, the more opaque it felt. It's very intriguing. The script was not what I was expecting. Playing a bright woman is always a relief. I try to change tack often between big splashy action movies and smaller independent films. Miss Beckinsale's journalist character is approached by a once-successful but now struggling film-maker who wants to make a film about the murder mystery. He will be played by Daniel Bruhl, the German actor, who portrayed the Formula One driver Niki Lauda in the recent blockbuster Rush. "My character plays a sort of Virgil, a guide who leads the director through this dark world," said Beckinsale, who has had roles in The Aviator, Total Recall and Van Helsing. The film is only loosely based on the murder case, said Ms Latza Nadeau, who has been a correspondent in Italy for nearly two decades. You won't see characters called Amanda Knox and Meredith Kercher. It's certainly not a judgement of innocence or guilt - it's more about the people who created the media circus surrounding the case. The film will be shot as the case continues to drag through Italy's painfully slow court system. Miss Knox and Mr Sollecito were convicted in 2009 of the murder and sexual assault of Miss Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon, Surrey, but had their convictions overturned by an appeals court in 2011. But in March this year the Supreme Court in Rome ordered a second appeals trial, which is taking place in a court in Florence. Mr Sollecito appeared at the trial for the first time this week, denying again that he had murdered Miss Kercher and saying that at the time of the killing he and Miss Knox had been wrapped up in "a little nest of desire."