TVSquad

Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning actress Renee Zellweger is taking on another prestigious role: executive producer of a Lifetime Original Movie. Zellweger will produce Living Proof, based on the true story of Dr. Denny Slamon. Harry Connick, Jr. is playing Slamon, a doctor and developer of Herceptin 2, a type of breast cancer medication. According to E!, the actress has a personal connection to the Living Proof story. Nanci Ryder, Zellweger's publicist and friend, was one of Dr. Slaman's patients.

While she's never produced anything for television before, Zellweger served as an executive producer on her 2006 film Miss Potter. The TV movie's premiere is set for October, National Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Living Proof is a significant part of the cable network's annual Stop Breast Cancer for Life campaign. A movie created for the 2006 campaign, Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy, received an Emmy nomination. The story is pretty standard TV movie fare: a noble doctor neglects his personal life and battles a pharmaceutical company to get life-saving medicine to the women that need it. Will Lifetime viewers tune in for Zellweger's newest project?