Berry checks out bust

Back in 2004 Halle Berry set up the based-on-a-true-story Brockovichian drama TULIA but the project never got off the ground. About three years later Lionsgate has come aboard to breathe new life into the film. The film would star Berry as an Indian born woman, Vanita Gupta, who works as the attorney for the NAACP looking to overturn the convictions of 46 black men arrested in a drug bust that turned up no drugs, money or weapons. The script, written by Karen Croner, is based on the book “Tulia: Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas Town.” Lionsgate is currently in negotiations with Carl Franklin (OUT OF TIME) to direct. Berry has both the thriller PERFECT STRANGER and the Benecio Del Toro drama THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE due later this year. Filming on TULIA would begin May 1st in Lousiana.