Julia Roberts is set to produce and star in a film about wildlife conservationist Joan Root. According to Variety, the documentarian was murdered earlier this year at her home in Kenya.

Currently working without a title, the film was inspired by the Vanity Fair article "A Flowering Evil". The piece revolved around Root's early life as she traipsed the globe with her documentary-making husband. After they divorced, she relocated to Kenya, where she devoted herself to saving Lake Naivasha from the ecologically damaging flower farm industry.

The screenplay is being written by David Magee, who also wrote the film Finding Neverland. It will begin shooting in the early part of 2008.