There will be life after "The X-Files," at least for Gillian Anderson.

Variety is reporting that the actress, who plays Agent Dana Scully on the Fox show, has put up her own money to option the rights of the Elizabeth Rosner novel "Speed of Light." Anderson reportedly is writing the screenplay and also will direct the film once she is done with the current ninth season of "The X-Files."

"Directing was a transformative experience for me, one that I really enjoyed," said Anderson who despite having directed one episode of "The X-Files," she never has directed a feature film. "Then whenI picked up this bok and started reading the poetry of [Rosner's] words, I found myself trying to visualize where the camera should be, the colors of the characters, the texture of the shots. It felt so intimate and natural, like I wrote it myself. I took the steps to option it, something I'd never done before.

"It's a beautiful piece that needs to see the light of day, and hopefully I can do it justice."

The book centers on a young man who is an obsessive-compulsive after being raised by a father who was shell-shocked from his ordeal as an Auschwitz survivor. Slowly, he is brought out of his shell by a Latina housekeeper while his sister heads to Budapest to trace the family's roots and discover a horrible secret about her father's time in the Nazi World War II concentration camp.

Anderson has yet to receive financing for the film, but said she will be able to start work on it in April when shooting for "The X-Files" finally wraps.