Current awards darling Jessica Chastain is set to play the late Princess Diana, reports Thompson on Hollywood. The news has come from this year’s American Film Market, with the project being tentatively titled “Caught in Flight”, and with German director Oliver Hirschbiegel (“Downfall”) on board.

Based on a “real-life affair that the princess long kept under wraps”, the film revolves around a secret affair between the late princess and a heart surgeon, Dr. Hasnat Kahn, who was said to have been the love of her life. Described as a “love story between a princess locked in a tower and an ordinary man,” the film is set to go into pre-production in March 2012 for the British production company, Ecosse Films, whose credits include “Nowhere Boy” and “Mrs. Brown.”

A film about Princess Diana is sure to be controversial, and the script by Steven Jeffreys is said to not cast the Princess “in a particularly favorable light; she is shown as a damaged person who stalks the doctor after he ends the affair.” But director Hirschbiegel has talked to potential buyers at AFM “about the compassion and wisdom that Dr. Kahn showed the princess”, and Chastain has been racking up awards buzz all year for her performances in three of the year’s hit films – “The Tree of Life”, “The Help” and “Take Shelter” – and has also landed a role in Tom Cruise’s upcoming untitled sci-fi film (formerly titled “Oblivion” and “Horizons”), so we think she could be the kind of actress to bring respect and poise to this kind of role.