Rooney Mara, currently being enveloped by the Hollywood machine, apparently now has limited time for quirky indie dramas, and has had to drop out of Emanuel And The Truth About Fishes. But all is not lost for Francesca Gregorini's second stint behind the camera: she's already replaced Mara with Kaya Scodelario.
The up-and-coming Scodelario turned heads in Channel 4's Skins, and has herself seen some Hollywood action in Clash Of The Titans, where she played Peshet. She's otherwise taken the indie route however, with roles in Duncan Jones' Moon and Mo Ali's Shank, and she recently starred as Cathy Earnshaw in Andrea Arnold's controversial Wuthering Heights.
Emanuel And The Truth About Fishes is not a peculiarly piscine entry in the erotic franchise (not enough M's), but from the cursory synopses available at this stage, rather sounds like a bonkers mash-up of Vertigo and Lars And The Real Girl. It's about a young girl who's obsessed with her neighbour because she bears an uncanny resemblance to her dead mother, and agrees to babysit said neighbour's child, which turns out to be a lifelike doll. We're guessing there won't be a car chase or vary many explosions. We're intrigued about where the fish fit in.
Gregorini (whose first film was Tanner Hall, which starred Mara) has also written the screenplay, and will take it before the cameras at an unspecified date in the near future. Scodelario meanwhile, has just finished shooting Now Is Good, with Dakota Fanning and Jeremy Irvine, and also has Brit-thriller Twenty8K in the works.