Mandy Moore To Star In ‘Buried’ Writer Chris Sparling’s Directorial Debut ‘Falling Slowly’
Back in the late ’90s, whenMandy Moorefirst appeared on the pop music scene, I would’ve never predicted she’d still be an active famous person in the early 2010s. Of course, I also dismissed Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, and everyone in ‘NSYNC as one-hit wonders destined to fade into obscurity by about 2001, so that shows what I know.
And now, here I am in 2011 reporting that Moore has signed on forBuriedwriterChris Sparling’s directorial debut, a ghost story titledFalling Slowly. She will be starring oppositeRodrigo Santoro, a.k.a. Paulo fromLost, the homoerotic villain from300, and Laura Linney’s smoldering love interest fromLove, Actually. More details after the jump.
Sparling’sBuried, about a man buried alive in a coffin, made theBlack Listof outstanding unproduced screenplays in 2009. In 2010, it was made into a well-received film directed by Rodrigo Cortes and starring Sexiest Man Alive Ryan Reynolds. Lionsgate purchased the film at Sundance last year and released it in the U.S. last fall. Sparling’s next film as a screenwriter isATM, in which three co-workers are trapped by a psychotic killer inside an ATM booth. He’s also working on the script forThe Last Exorcismdirector Daniel Stamm’sReincarnate, the second of producer M. Night Shyamalan’s “Night Chronicles” series.
Moore’s first big Hollywood role was in 2002’sA Walk to Remember, based on the 1999 Nicholas Sparks novel of the same title. Since then, she’s made a steady if mostly unremarkable film career for herself, starring inSaved!,Because I Said So,License to Wed,Southland Tales, and last year’s Rapunzel adaptationTangled.
Santoro was most recently seen in the Ewan McGregor-Jim Carrey prison romanceI Love You Philip Morris, and will next be seen — well, heard — inRio, the animated bird movie starring Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway.
I’ve embedded the music video for Moore’s first hit, 1999’s “Candy,” below, for no reason other than that it makes me laugh.
