Rooney Mara Joining Steven Soderbergh's 'Side Effects'

Rooney Mara is joining the cast of Side Effects, Steven Soderbergh’s latest movie which is set in the world of psychopharmacology, THR has confirmed. Mara steps into the role originally earmarked for Blake Lively.

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The movie is hoping to nail down financing this week. The project ran afoul some ill winds when the previous financing entity, Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures, dropped out.

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That hasn’t stopped Soderbergh from working to assemble a top-tier cast, which includes Jude Law and Channing Tatum. Catherine Zeta-Jones is also circling a role. 

The project, which was known as Bitter Pill at one point, is a thriller set in the world of and centers on a troubled and depressed woman (Mara) who is coping with the imminent release of her husband from jail and begins to take a new prescription drug, an act that causes unforeseen consequences.

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Open Road is the domestic distributor for the feature, which is eying an April 2012 start and a release in the first half of 2013.

Scott Z. Burns wrote the script and is producing with Gregory Jacobs and Lorenzo di Bonaventura. Ellison, Marc Butan and Ted Schipper are executive producing.

Mara last week received an Oscar nomination for her performance as Lisbeth Salander in Columbia’s adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo.