She’s going to be Gatsby’s girl next summer, but Carey Mulligan is looking to step out on her own. According to First Showing, the Drive actress is in talks to star in Nancy and Danny, an in-development romantic thriller from Man on Wire director James Marsh. The thriller is being developed by Indian Paintbrush, the same folks behind many of Wes Anderson’s hits including The Fantastic Mr. Fox and this summer’s Moonrise Kingdom.
Nancy and Danny will follow the machinations of a small-town woman determined to win back her high school crush through manipulation and subterfuge in a get-rich-quick scheme. The project has been described as being similar to Gus van Sant’s To Die For, the film that cast Nicole Kidman as a manipulative weather girl.
Unlike Kidman, Carey Mulligan is not really in need of a career-launcher (she’s already starred in An Education, Drive, Shame and the aforementioned The Great Gatsby). She’s yet to have a film all to her own though, and this one looks like it will focus more on her than on a male lead.
No other cast details have yet been announced (who, for instance, will play the hapless pawn in Mulligan’s game). But with Carey Mulligan attached and James Marsh set to step outside of the documentary genre, there’s no doubt that this will be one to keep an eye on.