Jennifer Lawrence to play war photographer Lynsey Addario in new Steven Spielberg movie It's What I Do

The Oscar winner beat Natalie Portman and Reese Witherspoon to win the role

Jennifer Lawrence has beaten the likes of Reese Witherspoon and Margot Robbie to secure the role of an acclaimed war photographer in a new Steven Spielberg movie.

Based on Lynsey Addario's hard-hitting memoir, It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War, the film will follow her journeys into some of the world's most dangerous places, from conflict-torn Afghanistan and Iraq to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Addario's determination to give identity to victims of war won her the Pulitzer Prize, while her experience of being kidnapped by Gaddafi's army in Libya shocked many when her book came out last month.

Film studios began bidding for the rights after excerpts were published in The New York Times Magazine, Deadline reports, with Working Title wanting it for Witherspoon, Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky after it for Natalie Portman and The Weinstein Company trying for George Clooney and Grant Heslov.

Andrew Lazar is reportedly on board to produce after his work on American Sniper, which stars Bradley Cooper as Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and recently became the highest-grossing war film of all-time. Further cast details are yet to be confirmed.

Elsewhere, Spielberg is working on The BFG and is rumoured to be discussing an Indiana Jones reboot with Jurassic World star Chris Pratt tipped to step into Harrison Ford's iconic boots.

Lawrence will soon be seen as Katniss Everdeen in the final Hunger Games instalment, Mockingjay Part 2 and is busy filming Joy, in which she plays single mum turned successful entrepreneur Joy Mangano.

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