Honoree actress Charlize Theron pets Bullseye, a department store mascot, at the Los Angeles film festival's second annual Spirit of Independence award in Los Angeles June 28, 2006. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

Charlize Theron has lured Oscar-nominated British director Alan Parker from a filmmaking hiatus to direct her passion project "Ice at the Bottom of the World."

Theron is set to star in and produce the ensemble family drama about a Navy captain who returns home to the Chesapeake Bay to find his daughter a heroin addict and the single mother of a multiracial child.

Bob Berney's Picturehouse, Theron's Denver & Delilah Films and Parker's Dirty Hands are producing the project. New Line International is on board to handle worldwide distribution and marketing for the indie production, whose budget is estimated at $20 million.

Theron pursued Parker ("Mississippi Burning") after studying his films, then made an overture to the director in early spring. Berney met with the director in London to firm up the deal after May's Festival de Cannes.

"When she told me she was interested in Alan Parker (for 'Ice'), I was really excited," Berney said. "He is one of our most illustrious filmmakers, who time and time again has shown his ability to mine true emotion from characters.

"When you go back to 'The Commitments' or even 'Shoot the Moon' you see how passionate he is about family stories. He'll bring amazing storytelling experience to ('Ice'), which is an uncompromising drama, tinged with black humor, about the way people try to connect at times when those connections have broken down."

"Ice" is based on a collection of short stories by Mark Richard, who also adapted the screenplay. Theron has owned the film rights to "Ice" for more than a decade.

"Ice" represents something of a reunion for Berney and Theron, who collaborated on 2003's independently produced "Monster." Berney marketed and distributed "Monster"; Theron produced the film and went on to win an Oscar for best actress.

Parker is doing a script polish on "Ice" and is scouting the mid-Atlantic states for an anticipated fall start of production. His filmmaking career spans four decades and includes Oscar nominations for 1979's "Midnight Express" and 1989's "Mississippi Burning."

Parker's films include "Fame," "Pink Floyd the Wall," "Birdy," "Angela's Ashes" and "The Life of David Gale."