A lot can change in a couple of years, especially in the fluid world of Hollywood filmmaking. A couple of years ago we learned about Serena, an adaptation of Ron Rash's great Depression era novel that's sorta like There Will Be Blood meets Lady MacBeth. At the time, Darren Aronofsky and Angelina Jolie were attached to direct and star, but 2012 is a totally different ball of wax, and now both have moved. This might sound crazy, but I think they've managed to trade up somehow, as Vulture reports that Academy Award winning director Susanne Bier will tackle the project, joined by Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence.
Bier is one of my favorite directors, winning the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award for In A Better World. She also was behind the original version of Brothers(remade here with Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman), and the soulful After the Wedding starring Mads Mikkelsen. Cooper and Lawrence, who just finished up David O. Russell's The Silver Linings Playbook together, will star as George and Serena Pemberton, an ambitious young couple who move to North Carolina to start a timber business. Their ruthlessness towards competitors eventually turns inward when Serena discovers she can't get pregnant, setting her off on a vengeful crusade against George's illegitimate son.
Filming is set to begin soon, as they'll probably want to get it done before Cooper gets busy with The Hangover 3 and Lawrence gets started on Catching Fire.
