Washington, Feb. 20 -- Actress and singer Janelle Monae is set to star in and produce the Universal Pictures adaptation of Tanya Smith's heist memoir 'Never Saw Me Coming: How I Outsmarted the FBI and the Entire Banking System--and Pocketed $40 Million'.

Monae will also produce the project about an unsuspecting woman who hatches a clever white-collar scheme that manipulates the U.S. banking system out of millions through Wondaland Pictures' first-look deal with Universal, with Smith to executive produce, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"When the FBI finally cornered Smith, they refused to believe a black woman could be the architect of sophisticated financial crimes, as they smugly asserted, "These are not the kind of crimes black ...