Julia Roberts will star in and produce a new film for Amazon Studios.

Little Bee, the feature drama based on Chris Cleave’s novel, depicting an eponymous young Nigerian asylum seeker meeting a British magazine editor during the oil conflict in the Niger Delta.

Julia Roberts will play the role of the British magazine editor.

Kathleen Robertson is writing the adaptation while Roberts will produce under her Red Om Films production company alongside partners Lisa Gillan and Marisa Yeres Gill.

It was claimed in 2009 that Nicole Kidman was approached to star in and produce a ‘Little Bee’ in conjunction with BBC Films but that project never came to materialised.