Scarlett Johansson, who has starred in such films as “Iron Man 2,” “The Black Dahlia,” and “Scoop,” is now set to star in the new John Carney film “Can a Song Save Your Life?”. Although they haven’t yet been confirmed, rumored co-stars include Mark Ruffalo and Jim Carrey. The film will begin shooting in New York next year.

“Can a Song Save Your Life?”, which will be executive produced by Judd Apatow, has a $10 million dollar budget. Although not a skyrocketing amount by any Hollywood standards, it is a great deal more substantial than the meager budget of “Once,” $160,000. Apatow has worked with several box office hits, including “Knocked Up” and “Get Him to the Greek.”

http://www.sbpost.ie/news/ireland/once-director-signs-hollywood-actress-57121.html

According to The Post.ie, Carney is excited to work with Johansson. ‘‘I went out to Los Angeles to meet Scarlett a couple of months ago. She was everything you could imagine – very hot, elegant and she’s really smart."

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Carney’s last prestigious film, “Once,” starred Marketa Irglova as the unnamed girl and Glen Hansard as the unnamed boy; it tells the week-long tale of a boy who had resorted to using his musical talent to play guitar on the streets. The girl, an immigrant, hears him play one day, and from there their love saga blossoms.

Due to the movie’s immediate success upon its 2006 release, the cast has now been involved in creating a stage version of the film. Hansard and Irglova are writing the music and lyrics, while Edna Walsh, a Dublic-born playwright, is taking care of the script. Carney is not involved with the stage production, citing his reasons as, “I realised I was done with the story and exhausted with that film, even though I love it...There’s a time to move on."

The musical theatre version will open at the New York Theatre Workshop this November, and potentially will hit Broadway following that.

“Once” won many awards, such as the 2007 Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film. The song “Falling Slowly” received a 2007 Academy Award for Best Original Song, and the film’s entire soundtrack was nominated for a Grammy. Hansard is the lead vocalist/guitarist for the Irish band “The Frames.”