Anne Hathaway has been rather particular in choosing projects after winning the Oscar earlier this year for her work in Les Miserables, but she has settled on another starring role to add to her docket and it's a doozy.  Hathaway will produce and star in an adaptation of Charlotte Rogan’s historical novel The Lifeboat, which sounds very much like a prime showcase for acting talent.  The story centers on a young newlywed and widow who is standing trial for murder in 1914.  The events in question surround the woman and her husband surviving the sinking of a transatlantic ship, only to end up in a lifeboat in which the survivors soon start getting rid of people for fear of overloading the boat.

Hit the jump for more on the project and to read a synopsis of the novel.

Per THR, William Broyles Jr.—the scribe behind Apollo 13, Cast Away, and Jarhead—is onboard to write the script, with Working Title and Focus Features set to finance and produce.  A director has yet to be attached, but this sounds like the kind of prestige project that attracts some high-level talent.  Hathaway is currently filming the musical Song One, and will next move on to shooting Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi pic Interstellar later this summer.

Here’s a synopsis for The Lifeboat:

Grace Winter, 22, is both a newlywed and a widow. She is also on trial for her life.

In the summer of 1914, the elegant ocean liner carrying Grace and her husband Henry across the Atlantic suffers a mysterious explosion. Setting aside his own safety, Henry secures Grace a place in a lifeboat, which the survivors quickly realize has exceeded capacity. For any to live, some must die.

As the castaways battle the elements and each other, Grace recollects the unorthodox way she and Henry met, and the new life of privilege she thought she'd found. Will she pay any price to keep it?

THE LIFEBOAT is a page-turning novel of hard choices and survival, narrated by a woman as unforgettable and complex as the events she describes. [Amazon]