Salma Hayek has been cast in the political drama The Septembers of Shiraz, the story of a Jewish family caught up in Iran's 1981 Islamic revolution, The Hollywood Reporter said.
Hayek will be accompanied in the cast by Shoreh Aghdashloo, a 2003 Oscar nominee for House of Sand and Fog. The movie, an adaptation of the novel by Dalia Sofer, will be directed by Australia's Wayne Blair (The Sapphires).
Gerard Butler will produce the film together with partners Alan Siegel and Heidi Jo Markel.
The thriller is based on events that really happened - Sofer was 10 years old when her family escaped from Iran - and centres on the character of a gem merchant in prison who fights to rejoin the rest of his family to leave Tehran.
Hayek plays the long-suffering wife of the main character (a part not yet cast), while Aghdashloo represents the housekeeper whose son once worked for the man in jail.
The filming is due to start in April.
Hayek will soon be seen in a small role in Muppets Most Wanted, to premiere on March 21.
"I have a very little cameo," Hayek said recently. "But I'm very excited because I'm (my daughter Valentina's) hero now."
