'Blindness' in Ruffalo's sight

Actor to star with Moore in Meirelles film

By MICHAEL FLEMING

Ruffalo

Director Fernando Meirelles has set his sights on Mark Ruffalo for "Blindness."

Ruffalo will star with Julianne Moore in an adaptation of the Jose Saramago novel about an outbreak of blindness that sweeps an unidentified town. Shooting begins this summer in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Focus Features is selling international rights.

Ruffalo will play a doctor who loses his sight along with everyone else in town, except the doc's wife. Don McKellar wrote the script, and Meirelles' 02 Filmes will produce. Meirelles most recently directed "The Constant Gardener" and "City of God."

Ruffalo, last seen in "Zodiac," recently completed the Terry George-directed "Reservation Road," the Spike Jonze-helmed "Where the Wild Things Are" and the Ryan Johnson-directed "Brothers Bloom."