Richardson, Hunt get Plum roles in 'Lucy'

Thesps join project based on 1990 Kincaid novel

By DAVID ROONEY

NEW YORK -- Natasha Richardson, Bonnie Hunt, Justin Theroux, Kip Pardue and Zoe Saldana have signed to star in Maggie Greenwald's drama "Lucy" for Gotham-based banner Plum Pictures.

Based on the 1990 novel by Jamaica Kincaid, the story follows a 21-year-old girl from the West Indies as she spends the summer in a sheltered New York WASP community. She takes a job as a nanny for a wealthy couple but soon notices the cracks in their seemingly perfect facade.

Saldana ("The Terminal") will play the title character, with Richardson as her employer and Hunt as the latter's best friend Dinah. Pardue plays Dinah's younger brother, with whom Lucy falls in love, and Theroux plays a local artist who befriends her.

Key character of Richardson's husband is yet to be cast.

Plum principals Galt Niederhoffer, Celine Rattray and Daniela Taplin will produce and are out to specialty distribs for financing with the project, scheduled to shoot in July in upstate New York. Los Angeles-based entrepreneur Reagan Silber, a partner and investor in Plum, will serve as exec producer.

Greenwald previously wrote and directed "Songcatcher," which won a special jury prize at Sundance in 2001.

Plum is in post on Steve Buscemi's "Lonesome Jim," starring Casey Affleck and Liv Tyler; and on "The Baxter" with IFC. Latter stars writer-director Michael Showalter with Elizabeth Banks, Michelle Williams and Theroux.