A teenage refugee who fled Syria and went on to swim at the Rio Olympics is to have her story turned into a film.
Yusra Mardini and her sister Sara were forced to swim for hours alongside their overloaded boat as it crossed from Turkey to Greece.
Yusra later competed for the first ever Refugee Olympic Team at the 2016 games.
UK production company Working Title has agreed to buy the rights to her story for a film that Stephen Daldry is tipped to direct.
"It's rather important that we find someone who can act and swim," he told the Daily Mail.
Mardini, who is now 18, left her hometown with her sister in 2015 after their house was destroyed in the Syrian conflict.
Her remarkable 25-day journey took her to Beirut in Lebanon, across the Aegean Sea and finally to Germany.
After training at a local swimming club, she became one of two Syrians to be chosen by the International Olympic Committee for its first refugee team.
She won her qualifying heat in the 100 metres butterfly, though her time was not quick enough for her to progress.
"This is just a great story about a kid with an ambition, just like Billy Elliot," said Working Title's Eric Fellner.
Daldry received an Oscar nomination in 2001 for directing Billy Elliot and went on to direct the West End musical version.
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