It's amazing to me that the casting of someone as talented as Blake Lively can cause a film to lose all it's financial support, but that's exactly what happened with Side Effects, Steven Soderbergh's upcoming drama centered on the use of pharmaceuticals. As you might recall, a couple of weeks ago Lively joined the cast of the Scott Z. Burns scripted film along with Channing Tatum and Jude Law. In that time, Megan Ellison yanked funding due to being unhappy with Lively in the lead. Seriously? Yeah, seriously. So who is apparently good enough to replace her and ensure the film even gets made? Red hot Rooney Mara, that's who.
Deadline reports that Mara will take on the lead role of Emily Hawkins, a troubled woman who turns to pharmaceutical drug use to cope with the anxiety of her husband's return from prison. Tatum will play her husband, who must be some sort of creep, while Law and Catherine Zeta Jones are psychiatrists looking over her.
Other than maybe Jessica Chastain, no other actress has had quite the year Mara's had. Since her brief but exhilerating "debut" in The Social Network, she's been up for virtually every major role, obviously scoring the biggest as Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. She's been kinda picky about her next move, but she's expected to be featured alongside Ryan Gosling in Lawless, one of the many upcoming films from Terrence Malick.
