After months of carefully choosing her next roles post-The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, star Rooney Mara has gone on a bit of a signing bonanza ‐ at least, a Mara-sized bonanza. Though Mara earned an Oscar nomination for the film (and the bulk of its kudos), she’s shied away from jumping into just any role ‐ she’s signed on for films from auteurs like Terrence Malick (Lawless) and Stephen Soderbergh (Bitter Pill), showing her clear choice to not go a more traditional and commercial route with her burgeoning career.
But Mara is easing up a bit, signing on for no less than two project this week alone. Just yesterday, Nathan reported on her apparent casting in Spike Jonze’s next film, in a role that once belonged to Carey Mulligan. As if that project didn’t already sound wonderful enough, Mara has signed on for another project that sounds, if possible, still more amazing.
Variety reports that Mara is attached to play the female lead in Brooklyn, based on a novel by Colm Toibin and with a script adapted by no less than Nick Hornby. The film is still in need of a director, but it will be produced by Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey of Wildgaze Films, who also produced An Education.
Mara will star as the character Eilis Lacey, a young Irish woman looking for a new life in 1950s Ireland. Wikipedia provides an extended synopsis of the film, which gives away most of the film’s plot, but the essentials hold that young Eilis emigrates to New York City in search of a new life. While in America, Eilis finds a new home at boarding house (run by the strict Madge Kehoe), gets a job in a department store, and takes night classes. She also falls in love for the first time with an Italian plumber named Tony. While often homesick, Eilis still makes a life for herself ‐ a life that is thrown into a tailspin when a tragedy in Ireland brings her back home. Upon returning to her small village. Eilis is overwhelmed both by her old life and a secret she’s brought with her from New York. Oh, and there’s totally a love triangle.
The film is set to start shooting in spring of 2013, so we might still have a while to go before the rest of the cast rounds out. [Variety, via ComingSoon]
