Hot off her acting debut in the title role of the upcoming drama Precious, Gabourey Sidibe is in talks to join Showtime's comedy pilot The C Word.

Laura Linney stars as a suburban wife, mother and a teacher forced to face a diagnosis of cancer but who manages to find the lighter side of a dark situation.

Sidibe would play a student in her summer-school class. The role could be a recurring one for the newcomer, whose breakthrough performance in Precious is creating Oscar buzz. The film, in which Sidibe plays a pregnant teen who overcomes insurmountable odds, opens next Friday via Lionsgate.

Also in the cast of the pilot are John Benjamin Hickey (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) as the brother of Linney's character, and Phyllis Somerville (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) as her neighbor.

Cancer