Movie heroine tackles TV drama

2005-09-28 10:36

Los Angeles - US legal crusader Erin Brockovich, immortalised by superstar Julia Roberts in a Hollywood movie, is to become the producer of a television law drama, industry reports said on Tuesday.

Brockovich became world famous after Roberts won the best actress Oscar for playing her in Steven Soderbergh's 2000 movie Erin Brockovich that told the story of her lonely battle against a California power supplier.

The real-life environmentalist, single mother and legal assistant Brockovich almost single-handedly brought down the utility provider that was accused of poisoning a city's water supply.

Now the American NBC television network has signed the legal eagle as a consultant to the planned one-hour drama Class Action, which Brockovich will also executive produce.

The show will be set in the morally-vague world of class-action lawsuits as seen through the eyes of a team of high-powered lawyers, not all of whom have entirely generous intentions.

Brockovich is "already feeding us great ideas from cases she's handled", writer Mark Gibson told Daily Variety.

But Brockovich will not be a character in the project and will instead supply story ideas and lend authenticity to the project, according to the industry bible.

Brockovich, who remains active as an advocate and environmentalist, is director of research at the Los Angeles law firm where she launched the investigation at the heart of feature Erin Brockovich.

- AFP