Nina Arianda is having a good week. While you may not know her name just yet, her face will soon start becoming quite familiar. Already earning attention thanks to a Tony award for her performance in "Venus In Fur," the rising actress recently landed the lead role in "Janis," the biopic of the late, great Janis Jopin set to be directed by "Martha Marcy May Marlene" helmer Sean Durkin. And now, she's got another ambitious movie gig, opposite a colleague who already knows what it's like to be suddenly in the spotlight.
Arianda has joined Jessica Chastain in "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Hers." The film is actually one half of relationship tale that will span two movies, each told from the husband and wife's perspective, with James McAvoy to star in other film, "The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby: His." Ned Benson ("In Defiance of Gravity") will pen and direct these two films, which will essentially chronicle the troubled relationship of a New York City couple, the husband a restauranteur, and the wife, who decides to go back to college. Arianda will play the couple's therapist in the drama.
Production on the movie starts very soon, and it's certainly one we're keeping our ear on the ground for. It's one of the most intriguing concepts we've heard for a relationship drama, and the chance to really delve into the male/female reactions with two films is either going to be insightful or indulgent. But either way, we're eager to find out. [Showbiz 411]