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Rapper/singer/actress Queen Latifah is among the new cast members added to the new Fox Searchlight film The Secret Life of Bees.

According to Variety, Latifah, will play one of three eccentric beekeeping sisters who take in a 14-year-old girl, who escapes her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father.

Eventually the teen runs away with her caregiver and only friend (Jennifer Hudson) to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother’s past.

In addition to Latifah, The Secret Life of Bees will feature Dakota Fanning as the 14-year-old runaway and R&B singer Alicia Keys, who is in negotiations to join the Gina Prince-Bythewood-directed film.

Published in 2002, The Secret Life of Bees was a long-running New York Times bestseller.

Producers for the film version include rapper/actor Will Smith, Lauren Shuler, James Lassiter and others.

The Secret Life of Bees is scheduled to be released in 2008.