Naomi Watts

King Kong actress says it is an ‘honour’ to play Princess Diana

Kent-born Hollywood star Naomi Watts has been chosen to play Princess Diana in a big-screen retelling of her turbulent final two years.

Princess Diana’s death in a Paris underpass car smash shocked the world, but she had been making headlines for years, not least withn her love life and her failed marriage to Prince Charles.

The ‘people’s princess’ once claimed there were three people in her marriage. Charles later married his long-term mistress Camilla.

Now Watts will take on her what could be her most challenging role ever in a film being made later this year.

But given Diana’s unique place in the affections of the public, there are likely to be objections to the film, no matter how good it is.

But German director Oliver Hirschbiegel is determined the biopic will be a winner thanks to the warmth, humanity and empathy he says Watts will bring to the role.

Called Caught in Flight, it will be filmed in Britain by Hirschbiegel who directed Downfall, a film about Adolf Hitler’s last days as seen from the eyes of a secretary.

Shoreham-born Ms Watts, 43, said: “It is such an honour to be able to play this iconic role – Princess Diana was loved across the world and I look forward to rising to the challenge of playing her on screen.”

Her Welsh mother Myfanwy and father, Pink Floyd sound engineer Peter Watts, split when she was four and got back together again only for him to die at a London flat in 1976.

The mother moved Naomi and brother Ben to Australia when she was 14. Enrolling in acting lessons, she was a classmate of Nicole Kidman.

She has said: “I consider myself British and have very happy memories of the UK. I spent the first 14 years of my life in England and Wales and never wanted to leave. When I was in Australia I went back to England a lot.”

Watts has specialised in playing in low budget arty films like The Ring, Mulholland Drive, but also blockbusters like King Kong and J.Edgar.

It is expected the film will tackle some of the many conspiracy theories behind the death of Diana and her then boyfriend Dodi Fayed, son of former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed.

The pair were killed in an early morning single-car smash on August 31, 1997. An inquest was finally heard between October, 2007, and April, 2008, where a jury eventually decided they were unlawfully killed by a combination of the driving of their chauffeur, Henri Paul, and the driving of following vehicles.

The inquest heard from 278 witnesses and the inquest was estimated to have cost £6.5 million.

Ecosse Films said it wants to chronicle the final years of Diana’s life and “how finding true personal happiness for the first time allowed her to achieve her defining successes evolving into a major international campaigner and humanitarian”.