Acclaimed filmmaker Mira Nair has signed on to join Hillary Swank in the mysterious biopic Amelia.

Swank will portray noted American aviatrix Amelia Earhart in the movie.

Hilary Swank

The film was earlier to be helmed by Phil Noyce of Catch A Fire fame, but he later dropped out.

Besides being an aviation pioneer, Earhart was also known as an author and women's rights advocate. She disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island during an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937.

Nair recently adapted Pulitzer prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri's novel The Namesake into a movie, released in March 2007.

(Agencies via China Daily February 4, 2008)