Lily James to play swimmer in film

Actress Lily James will portray Gertrude Ederle in a movie about the first woman to swim across the English Channel.

The Paramount Pictures film will be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.

Jeff Nathanson is adapting the script from Glenn Stout's book "Young Woman and the Sea", which chronicles Ederle's 1926 swim across the 21 mile stretch of water at the age of 20, reports variety.com.

Ederle took up distance swimming after she had won a gold medal and two bronze medals in the 1924 Olympics by swimming 22 miles from Battery Park in New York to Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Ederle began her Channel crossing at Cap Gris-Nez in France and came ashore at Kingsdown, Kent, 14 hours and 34 minutes later - the fastest time ever for a crossing.

Ederle was greeted with a ticker-tape parade in New York when she returned home, and played herself in the movie "Swim Girl, Swim".

James starred with Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter and Richard Madden in "Cinderella", which grossed over $580 million worldwide. She will star in Edgar Wright's upcoming film "Baby Driver" opposite Ansel Elgort, Liam Neeson, and Jamie Foxx.