Michael Douglas will star in Tragic Indifference, a courtroom thriller based on a landmark liability case against Ford, according to Variety.

Douglas will play the attorney who took Ford to court on behalf of a single mother from Texas who was paralyzed and nearly died after an accident. The trial exposed the automaker's indifference to flaws in its SUVs.

Stephen Gerard will write the script based on Adam Penenberg's 2003 book of the same name.

Attorney Tab Turner, who'd won most of his liability cases in confidential settlements, was pressed to seek a public courtroom forum by Donna Bailey, whose Ford Explorer flipped in 2000. Turner not only won a gigantic settlement for Bailey, he also got his client her real wish: Ford brass came to her bedside to apologize.

Douglas will produce with David Arata, who developed the screen story.