With an Oscar nomination under her belt at the age of only 14, Paramount Pictures seems to think there’s a big future for Hailee Steinfeld, so despite the fact she’s only starred in one successful movie – True Grit – the studio is building a movie around her, in an attempt to try and hang on to their breakout star.
Deadline reports that she’ll play the lead in Forgotten, based on the book by Cat Patrick. The novel is about ‘ London Lane (to be played by Steinfeld), a 16-year old whose memory is erased at 4:33 every night. The following morning, all she can remember are events from her future. After meeting a new boy at school, London becomes frustrated that she cant seem to find him in her memory of things to come.’
It certainly a more straightforwards commercial flick for the star, but Paramount is still taking a bit of a gamble that Steinfeld will become a star. The sort of people who watched True Grit are very different from the sort of people who’ll like this sort of movie, meaning Paramount is essentially banking on someone who’s an unknown quantity to most of the target audience. She’s talented, so it may work, but we’ll have to wait and see.