Casting Roundup: Anna Friel joins DARK FIELDS, Jessica Biel takes on MOB GIRL, Carey Mulligan and Saoirse Ronan team up in VIOLET AND DAISY

Anna Friel from the hit TV show Pushing Daisies was recently cast to co-star along side Bradley Cooper in The Dark Fields. The film is being directed by Neil Burger and is currently filming in Ney York. The movie is based on the book by Alan Glynn, and follows a down-and-out writer (Cooper) who gets his hands on a top-secret pharmaceutical drug that makes one smarter. He experiences sudden financial and social success but soon discovers that the drug has lethal and lasting side effects. Before long, mysterious antagonists are pursuing him. Friel is joining the cast that also includes Robert De Niro, Abbie Cornish and Tomas Arana. Friel will play Cooper's ex-wife, a woman who was a go-getter before their breakup.

Jessica Biel will produce and star in a film called Mob Girl, which is based on the real-life story of a mafia mistress. The film is being directed by Lone Scherfig (An Education), and is based on a book by Teresa Carpenter, and follows Arlyn Brickman, who spent her life around racketeering types, with her grandmother and father as early examples. She ended up running packages and letting mobsters use her home as a safe haven, and even bedded a few. But years of abuse at the hands of her Mafia associates eventually led her to become a government witness.

Carey Mulligan (An Education) and Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones) have been cast in a new film called Violet and Daisy, and will be directed by Academy Award winning screenwriter Geoffrey Flether (Precious) who also wrote the original script. The movie is described as a Thelma and Louise meets Superbad and Pulp Fiction. Apparently there’s plenty of action, and lots of girl power.

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