Katherine Heigl will star in and produce the feature film adaptation of Escape, the bestselling memoir of Carolyn Jessop, whose testimony helped convict polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs.

Jessop was born into the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints sect. At 18 she married a man 32 years her senior; at 35, she fled with her eight children.

Equity financier Como Court Prods. will pay to develop the script, says Variety.