Oprah Winfrey has signed on for the title role in "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" for HBO Films. Based on Rebecca Skloot's nonfiction bestseller, the story follows a poor black woman who died of cervical cancer in 1951. Without her consent, pieces of the tumor that killed her were removed and used for medical exploration and to build a billion-dollar research industry. Both Winfrey and "Six Feet Under" creator Alan Ball have been attached as executive producers for several years, but the project is only now moving forward and will begin shooting this Summer.