Julia Roberts stars in Train Man

Hollywood beauty Julia Roberts will play a lawyer in ‘Train Man,’ 16 years after she won an Oscar for playing legal clerk Erin Brockovich.

The 48-year-old actress has joined the courtroom drama about a real-life New York folk hero and criminal, Darius McCollum.

Roberts’ character will defend Asperger Syndrome sufferer McCollum who has been fascinated with trains since his childhood and was arrested 25 times for stealing Greyhound buses and subway trains, thus becoming an Internet sensation.

His numerous thefts began at the age of 15 and are shown throughout the film in a series of flashbacks, and Roberts will play his most recent defence lawyer.

Simon Stephenson has penned the script.

The role comes 16 years after Roberts depicted a real-life legal clerk in ‘Erin Brockovich’ who took on a company who were giving the residents of a small town cancer by contaminating the water supply with a dangerous chemical.

Her performance as the titular character won Roberts the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2001.

The 48-year-old star can next be seen in the crime thriller ‘The Secret in Their Eyes’ alongside ’12 Years A Slave’ star Chiwetel Ejiofor, 38.

She has two more movies in the pipeline for 2016; ‘Money Monster,’ directed by Jodie Foster, and ‘Mother’s Day’ from Garry Marshall.