Variety is reporting Julia Roberts will star in a movie based on the life of Joan Root, a British wildlife conservationist slain in her home earlier this year.
The 69-year-old Root was shot with an AK-47 at her home in Naivasha, 55 miles outside of Nairobi. Tracker dogs led the police to two men who were picked up on suspicion of murder. Police believe the men went to the Lake Naivasha property with the intent to murder Root, not to commit a burglary. Root had been very active in trying to preserve the freshwater lake, fighting to stop poachers from hauling in the young fish and working on stopping pesticides from flower farms from being dumped into the lake.
Roberts, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner will produce the film. David Magee is working on the screenplay with filming expected to begin in 2008.
Roberts recently voiced the character Charlotte in Charlotte's Web. Roberts just wrapped filming Fireflies in the Garden with Ryan Reynolds, Willem Dafoe and Emily Watson and will star in The Friday Night Knitting Club basedon Kathleen Jacobs' novel.
Source: Variety, BBC
