Former X-Files star Gillian Anderson has acquired the feature film rights to Gellhorn: A Twentieth-Century Life by Caroline Moorehead.

She aims to star in the movie about one of the first female war correspondents, according to Variety today.

Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998) was an American-born author and journalist who became one of the first female war correspondents.

She covered the major international conflicts of her lifetime, from the Spanish Civil War to Vietnam to the Cold War.

Her second husband was Ernest Hemingway, but the pressures of working in a male-dominated field led to their bitter divorce.

Personal and romantic happiness eluded her despite her professional success.

According to the report the film will focus mostly on the acrimonious marriage between Gellhorn and Hemingway.