Rooney Mara, Ben Foster, Casey Affleck Circling ‘Aint Them Bodies Saints’

BREAKING: David Lowery has written and will direct Aint Them Bodies Saints, an expansion of his short film that has Rooney Mara, Ben Foster and Casey Affleck attached to star. Lowery wrote and directed the short Pioneers, which won the Grand Jury Award at the 2011 Grand Jury Award at 2011 SXSW after premiering at Sundance. Lowery developed the feature at the January 2011 Sundance Writers Lab. James Johnson, Toby Halbrooks, Amy Kaufman, Lars Knudsen and Jay Van Hoy are producing. Lowery has signed with WME and WME Global is repping the film, and Evolution Independent’s Cassian Elwes is lining up the financing.

Rooney Mara to star in ‘Brooklyn’
Nick Hornby pens adaptation

LONDON — Rooney Mara is attached to play the lead role in “Brooklyn,” a feature film based on Colm Toibin’s novel about a young Irish woman who emigrates to New York in the 1950s.

The project is being developed by producers Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey of London-based Wildgaze Films, who previously made “An Education.”

Novelist and screenwriter Nick Hornby, who wrote “An Education” and is also a non-exec director of Wildgaze, penned the adaptation of “Brooklyn,” with the backing of BBC Films. The novel was first published in 2009.

Mara will play Ellis Lacey, who reluctantly leaves her rural Irish community to take up a job offer in America. She settles in Brooklyn, gradually overcomes her homesickness, and starts to enjoy the greater freedom of New York. She falls in love, but when tragic news calls her back to Ireland, she meets another man, and has to choose between her old and new lives.

Dwyer and Posey are now working to attach a director for the project, with a view to shooting in spring 2013.

Their next production will be “A Long Way Down,” adapted by Jack Thorne from Hornby’s bestselling novel about four characters who meet on New Year’s Eve when they are all trying to commit suicide from the top of the same building. Set to shoot in September, the pic will be directed by Pascal Chaumeil, and star Pierce Brosnan, Toni Collette and Emile Hirsch.

Dwyer also recently produced Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut “Quartet,” starring Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon and Billy Connolly as the inhabitants of a home for retired opera singers. The film is now in post-production, and is likely to premiere at Toronto in September.

Dwyer and Posey have formalized their partnership in Wildgaze, after previously working together through separate production companies.

Dwyer has mothballed her own shingle, Finola Dwyer Prods, to join Posey in Wildgaze.

Source: Variety

Rooney Mara in final talks for Spike Jonze pic
‘Dragon Tattoo’ thesp would replace Carey Mulligan

Rooney Mara is in final negotiations to join Spike Jonze’s upcoming project now that Carey Mulligan has fallen out due to skedding conflicts.

Untitled project stars Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams and Samantha Morton. Jonze penned the script and is set to direct the pic about a man who falls in love with the voice of a computer. Details of Mara’s role are unclear.

Megan Ellison is producing through her Annapurna Pictures banner.

If a deal closes, Mara would segue to the Jonze pic once she finishes her work on Steven Soderbergh’s “The Bitter Pill.”

Jonze had not helmed a pic since 2009’s “Where the Wild Things Are.” Landing Mara would be the final element he needs to get the pic up and running.

After having a good experience with David Fincher on “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” which earned her an Oscar nom, Mara is opting to take on projects with auteur directors who work in the same style as Fincher.

Besides “Bitter Pill,” Mara has also recently worked on Terrence Malick’s “Lawless” with Ryan Gosling.

Mara is repped by WME.

Source: Variety