“Cinderella” star Lily James is attached to play Gertrude “Trudy” Ederle — the first woman to swim across the English Channel — in “Young Woman and the Sea,” a drama that Jerry Bruckheimer will produce for Paramount, TheWrap has learned.
Jeff Nathanson (“Catch Me If You Can”) is adapting the 2009 book by Glenn Stout, which chronicles Ederle’s daring journey in 1926. Nathanson, who will executive produce the film, previously worked with Bruckheimer on “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.”
Ederle was a competitive swimmer who won a gold medal at the 1924 Olympic Games. She practiced swimming the 21-mile distance across the English Channel by swimming 22 miles from Battery Park in New York to Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Ederle also had the foresight to sell her story to two newspapers, which helped her become a media darling.
James anchored Disney’s live-action “Cinderella,” which grossed $542 million worldwide and catapulted her to global fame. She next stars in “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” and will soon begin filming Edgar Wright‘s “Baby Driver” with Ansel Elgort.
James is repped by UTA, which also reps Nathanson. The news was first reported by Deadline.