Hilary Swank lined up for legal drama

October 02, 2008 10:35:24 AM

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Oscar-winner Hilary Swank is to star in a legal thriller based on the true story of a single mother who became a lawyer in order to help clear her brother of murder, it was reported Wednesday.

Swank, 34, a two-time best actress Academy Award winner for "Boys Don't Cry" and "Million Dollar Baby," will play the titular role in the film, "Betty Anne Waters," Daily Variety reported.

In real life, Waters was a high-school drop-out who refused to believe that her brother Kenneth was guilty of the 1983 murder of a Massachusetts woman.

Convinced Kenneth had been framed, Waters went to college and law school while raising two children alone and working as a waitress in order to represent her brother during his appeals against conviction.

Kenneth Waters was eventually exonerated and freed in 2001.

Swank, was most recently seen in the romantic flick "P.S., I Love You" and has just completed filming on a biopic of famed aviator Amelia Earhart.