Julia Roberts joins The Normal Heart

Julia Roberts

Hollywood star Julia Roberts has signed up to star in the Ryan Murphy-directed drama movie The Normal Heart.

Roberts who won a Best Actress Oscar for her lead role in 2000 movie Erin Brockovich will join The Big Bang Theory television comedy show star Jim Parsons, Alec Baldwin, Mark Ruffalo and Matt Bomer in the film that tells the story of the HIV/AIDS catastrophe that hit New York back in the 1980s.

This latest outing for Roberts will see her once again team up with Murphy after he directed her in 2010 drama hit Eat Pray Love.

The actress had enjoyed a few years of quiet until recently, with Roberts also starring alongside Tom Hanks in last years romantic-comedy success Larry Crowne, while the next new movie she can be seen is comedy-fantasy Mirror, Mirror, in which she will play the evil Queen Clementianna.

Playwright and author Larry Kramer wrote the script for The Normal Heart, with the film being adapted from his play of the same name.

Ruffalo had already pledged to appear in the movie as Ned Weeks and will now play opposite 44-year-old Roberts, who will portray wheelchair-bound doctor Emma Brookner.

The part of Brookner was played by Ellen Barkin for her Broadway debut in last years Golden Theatre version in Manhattan, with the actress picking up a Tony Award for her work.

Meanwhile, Baldwin will play the part of Ruffalos brother an attorney who finds it tough dealing with the sexuality of his sibling in the movie.