Oscar-winning The Help actress Octavia Spencer is reportedly engaged in final negotiations to play God in Lionsgate’s upcoming film The Shack.
Based on the bestselling 2007 novel by William P. Young, The Shack is about a man whose youngest daughter gets abducted during a family vacation, with key evidence suggesting foul play found in an abandoned shack.
According to Variety‘s description of the project: “Four years later, the man receives a note, apparently from God, inviting him back to the shack and, against his better judgment, he accepts the invitation and finds something there that will change his life forever.”
The novel has reportedly sold over 18 million copies worldwide, and has been translated into 39 languages. Lionsgate acquired the film rights to the book in 2013.
Exam director Stuart Hazeldine will helm the film, with Netter Productions’ Gil Netter and Brian Cummings set to executive produce, according to Variety. Production is expected to begin this spring.
Spencer’s 2011 Oscar win bolstered an already-impressive film and TV resumé; since The Help, she’s guested on episodes of 30 Rock and American Dad, had a role in the critically-acclaimed indie film Fruitvale Station, appeared in 2013’s Snowpiercer, and headlined the Fox TV drama Red Band Society.
She will next appear in Insurgent, the sequel to 2014’s box-office hit Divergent.