Holly Hunter signs up for 'Still I Rise'

Holly Hunter has committed to education drama Still I Rise, which centres on the crisis in US state schooling.

The actress will play the head of the teacher's union, who has to deal with two angry mothers trying to turn the system around themselves.

Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis will take on the mother roles in the film, penned by Brin Hill.

Beastly director Daniel Barnz will helm the project, which marks Hunter's first big-screen role since The Big White and Nine Lives in 2005.

Hunter is currently also in talks to play a leading role in the forthcoming adaptation of Romeo and Juliet by Oscar-winning Gosford Park screenwriter Julian Fellowes.

The US TV series Saving Grace, in which she played a chain-smoking, heavy-drinking detective, was axed in 2010 after three years.