Following last week’s reports that real-life couple Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly were set to star in Creation, a biopic of Charles Darwin, former Bond girl Rosamund Pike told Showbiz Spy today that she and Joseph Fiennes are playing the legendary evolutionist and his wife. In fact, she points out, that they have already started shooting the project.

Pike talked about her role, noting that she is a Darwinist, but that playing his wife has been an “eye-opener” for her.

“She was very religious and his discoveries placed a heavy strain on their marriage,” she explained. “We are exploring different angles to the story.”

The film, based on a book written by Darwin’s great-great-grandson Randal Keynes, is set to release alongside the bicentenary of his birth in 2009.