Oprah Winfrey to star in HBO's 'Henrietta Lacks' movie

Oprah Winfrey has an "immortal life" on her to-do list.

The actress and former daytime talk-show host will star in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, an HBO movie based on the best-selling nonfiction book by Rebecca Skloot.

Veteran Broadway director George C. Wolfe is set to direct from his screenplay. Winfrey, Alan Ball, Peter Macdissi, Carla Gardini and Lydia Dean Pilcher  will executive produce, and Rebecca Skloot will co-executive produce the film, which is a Your Face Goes Here Entertainment, Harpo Films and Cine Mosaic production.

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While no premiere date has been set, filming is expected to begin this summer.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is about an African-American woman whose cells were harvested without her permission and used to produce the first immortal human cell line. Winfrey will play her daughter, Deborah Lacks, who tells the story in the movie, which will follow her search to learn about the mother she never knew. She also seeks to understand how the collection of Lacks’ cancerous cells in 1951 led to medical breakthroughs.The story touches on medical privacy, race, poverty and relationships.

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Skloot's book was published in February 2010 and was on USA TODAY's best-selling books list for 122 weeks.

Henrietta Lacks’ sons David Lacks, Jr. and Zakariyya Rahman and granddaughter Jeri Lacks are consultants on the movie.