Charlize Theron is the frontrunner to play the heroine in a new race drama.

According to TeenHollywood.com, producer Ron Samuels wants the Monster star to act in the story of investigative reporter Hunter Johnson, who spent years looking at the case of Ruby McCullum.

Samuels explained: “Claudia set out to prove that Ruby McCullum, a well-to-do African-American, was unfairly sentenced for the murder of a white doctor half a century ago. This woman was sent to the electric chair but that didn't happen. She had an abortion in jail and almost died and lived out her life in a mental institute, where she died in the 1990s.

“What compelled me about this film is Claudia discovered racism is still rampant in parts of Florida. People actually burned McCullum's house to the ground in a bid to warn other African-Americans from talking about the crime she supposedly committed.

"It took a 93-year-old woman to blow the lid off this case when she told Claudia, 'I'm 93. What can they do to me now?' It's just a race story that has to be told and I plan to leave it up to the American public to decide whether Ruby McCullum was guilty.”