Once queen of the femtastic rom-com, Julia Roberts has, in her latter years, morphed into an actress who seems pretty content to be part of an ensemble or to step into the background for a supporting role. She’s about to get back to being a solo act though, by starring in a movie about African wildlife conservationist Joan Root. Hollywood Reporter says Roberts will play Root, and the film will start with her early life as she makes wildlife documentaries with her husband, then follow her home where she tries to protect local lake ecology, and gets shot dead.

It’s a filmmaking formula that’s worked before. Heck, it won Sigourney Weave an Oscar. Just once though, I’d like to see a movie about an environmentalist who isn’t a saint. I mean, they can’t all be these wonderfully inspiring role models can they? Somewhere on the payroll of the Discovery Channel there has to be at least one abusive, raging alcoholic. The kind of nature freak who likes to shoot spider-monkeys with a beebee gun and then laughs when they fall out of the tree. Where’s that movie? That’s something I want to see. This, we’ve seen this. We’ve seen it over and over and over again. I’m sure Joan Root was a wonderful person and she did wonderful things, but I’m pretty happy with Diane Fossey and Jane Goodall as representatives of a good, empowered female environmentalist cross section.