UPDATE! Chloe Moretz and Haley Bennett are top contenders for the lead in the remake of Carrie

March 28th 2012, 3:58am

UPDATE: Deadline reports that a formal offer has been made to Chloe Moretz for the title role in MGM’s remake of CARRIE. She seems pretty stoked about it, too! From her Twitter page: “Never been so happy in my life! Thank you Kim Pierce and thank u MGM for the chance of a lifetime i will never forget!”

Mar. 26, 2012: In case you didn’t know, there’s a remake of CARRIE in the works, one that’s said to be hewing closer to famed novelist Stephen King’s original story. BOYS DON’T CRY director Kimberly Peirce is set to take the helm, and now it’s being reported that there are two young actresses in contention to be drenched in pig blood.

According to Vulture, Chloe Moretz (DARK SHADOWS) and Haley Bennett (Terrence Malick’s LAWLESS) are the top contenders for the lead role in CARRIE. The two are said to be at the top of a list of actresses that include Dakota Fanning, Emily Browning, Bella Heathcote, and Lily Collins. Most recently, THE DESCENDANTS’ Shailene Woodley passed on an offer from MGM to take on the titular part. Meanwhile, Carrie’s nutty mom could be played by Jodie Foster or Julianne Moore, both of whom director Peirce has shown interest in.

Here’s a breakdown of King’s book (via Amazon):

Stephen King’s legendary debut, about a teenage outcast and the revenge she enacts on her classmates.

Carrie White may have been unfashionable and unpopular, but she had a gift. Carrie could make things move by concentrating on them. A candle would fall. A door would lock. This was her power and her sin. Then, an act of kindness, as spontaneous as the vicious taunts of her classmates, offered Carrie a chance to be a normal and go to her senior prom. But another act–of ferocious cruelty–turned her gift into a weapon of horror and destruction that her classmates would never forget.