In just a matter of years, Rooney Mara has gone from being an aspiring to a full-fledged Hollywood star. This is a transformation we see often, and usually a good deal of luck is involved: an actor will simply
deliver the right performance in the right movie at the right time, thereby securing her or him future work with those producers and the attention of the film establishment.
Mara’s success has certainly involved a good dose of such luck, to be sure.
But she has also shown an admirable ability to pick those opportunities that are perfectly-suited to further her career: she was able to draw critical attention for her role in The Social Network; she wowed blockbuster audiences with her performance in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo; and she has already worked with such big names as Steven Soderbergh, Spike Jonze, and Terrence Malick.
Now, Mara has confirmed her next career step. According to The Hollywood Reporter she is scheduled to play the lead role in Brooklyn, an upcoming film that will adapt Colm Tóibín’s 2009 novel. Although no other actors for the project have been announced, it will be produced largely by the same team that created An Education (Carey Mulligan, Amanda Posey, and Finola Dwyer).
The script will also be written by the screenwriter behind An Education – Nick Hornby – who is perhaps best known for penning High Fidelity back in 1995.
The eponymous best-selling novel upon which Brooklyn is based tells the story of a young Irish woman, Eilis Lacey, who immigrates to New York in the 1950s in search for a better life. But, once there, a sudden death forces her to return to Ireland and settle back into her old routine – yet not before she makes a decision that keeps her rooted in America and threatens to force her new life into disarray. Brooklyn deals with the changes, societal norms, and immigrant experiences that characterized the postwar years across two continents.
The movie has definite potential as a period piece, although it probably won’t find tremendous appeal among high school males or those on a sugar daddy dating outing.Brooklyn carries abudget of $25 million and is planned to start shooting in the spring of 2013.
