“This year’s Cinderella at the Oscar ball will join the long list of Allen’s muses as she takes on the ingenue role in the… still-untitled pic,” industry paper Variety reported.

The two actresses have been cast for the London-set flick, financed by the makers of Allen’s latest hit, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the report said.

Just 24 years old, Pinto hit the big time with her role in Slumdog Millionaire, which won eight Oscars on Sunday, including best picture and best director.

Set in Pinto’s home town of Mumbai, the movie tells the story of a impoverished young love-struck orphan who beats the odds to win Who Wants to be a Millionaire? while recapturing his long-lost-love Latika, played by Pinto.

Since being picked out of auditions by Slumdog director Danny Boyle when she was working on the modeling circuit, Pinto has wooed audiences worldwide as the film’s female lead.

She is now to play alongside Watts, whose starring credits include The International, King Kong and David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive.

Watts is to join Allen for filming – which will take place in London between June and September – after wrapping her current project Mother and Child, a film by Colombian director Rodrigo Garcia.

The news comes as Allen toasts the victory of his most recent muse, Penelope Cruz, who on Sunday won best supporting actress for her role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which also starred Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall and Javier Bardem.

Another Allen film that has already been completed, Whatever Works, is scheduled for release in June.

The story of Lear centers on a mighty king dividing his estate among his three daughters: Cordelia (Knightley), Regan (Paltrow) and Goneril (Watts). When Cordeila is unable to blow enough smoke up the royal butt, she is disowned, and the lion’s share of the throne goes to her sisters. But we all know about ‘fatal flaws’ in Shakespeare, and it turns out that Regan and Goneril are hardly the loving daughters they claimed to be.

The project was announced back in May at Cannes, with a projected budget of $35 million. Most of that is expected to go towards the epic battle sequences that occur when the kingdom descends into the family feud to end all feuds — not to mention $35 million can buy an awful lot of tights.

King Lear is expected to start production early next year and should arrive in theaters in 2010.