Julia Roberts In Talks to Play Lead in Walter Salles ‘Our Wild Life’

How we missed this initial news is beyond us and we’re all a little bit embarrassed.

Somehow while closely tracking Walter Salles’ long-gestating adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s iconic Beat-Generation novel, “On the Road” — which will finally shoot this summer and now stars Kristen Stewart, Kristen Dunst, “Tron Legacy” and “Friday Night Lights” star Garrett Hedlund, and Sam Riley (“Control”) — we missed the fact that the Brazilian filmmaker known for “The Motorcycle Diaries” signed on to a project called “Our Wild Life” in March (maybe we missed it in SXSW pre-madness?).

With “On The Road” shooting in August in various locations (New Mexico, Montreal), surely this picture won’t be next, but one of the interesting elements about the project is that it’s formerly known as “Peaceable Kingdom” and “Elephant Orphanage,” and is the same project that Nick Cassavetes was once attached to and then sued New Line over.

In the vein of “Gorillas in the Mist” and PG-13-ish, Cassavetes allegedly turned it into a much darker R-Rated film and apparently Kate Winslet, Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and Drew Barrymore all had expressed interest in the role.

Either way, in March, Salles took over this biopic about Dame Daphne Sheldrick‘s efforts to prevent elephant extinction in Kenya written by Jeff Stockwell (“The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys,” and “Bridge to Terabithia”).

So great, right? Well, here’s the last bit — according to the latest issue of Production Weekly (remember how you used to love their Twitter feed?) — Julia Roberts is in talks to play Sheldrick. Now considering this film is at least a year away, this could be very early days, but considering the talent that was circling the project previously, it sounds like a strong female role that all the ladies in Hollywood are interested in.

Considering how rare that is — a good female role (see our “Sex & The City 2″ review) — we’re actually not shocked Roberts would be circling this project.