Hayden Panettiere, cast member of the sci-fi series
Heroes, is set to star in a new movie entitled
Fireflies in the Garden, alongside actress Julia Roberts.
Directed by Dennis Lee,
Fireflies in the Garden is based on the life of the film’s director and explores the intricacies of love, loyalty and dedication in a family torn apart when faced with unforeseen catastrophe. Apart from Roberts and Panettiere, the film also stars Willem Dafoe, Carrie-Anne Moss, Ryan Reynolds and Emily Watson.
Fireflies in the Garden is scheduled to begin shooting on Tuesday in Austin and is scheduled for release in 2008.
Aside from
Fireflies, Panettiere also stars in a romantic comedy film entitled
Shanghai Kiss as the character Adelaide. The film features a struggling Chinese-American actor who gets involved with a high school girl.
Shanghai Kiss is currently on production but will be released this year. Also included in the movie are Ken Leung, Kelly Hu, Joel Moore, Oliver Yan, James Hong, Byron Mann and Spencer Redford.
Panettiere, 17, started out on soap operas like One Life to Live and Guiding Light. Her role as Lizzie Spaulding on the latter earned her a special recognition award from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for bringing awareness of the disease to television viewers. In addition, she also provided the voice of Kairi in the Playstation 2 video game Kingdom Hearts. Her other credits included Malcolm in the Middle, The Architect, Bring It On: All or Nothing, Ice Princess and Raising Helen.
Meanwhile, fans can catch Panettiere as a cheerleader with the power of spontaneous generation on
Heroes every Mondays at 9:00 PM on NBC returning on April 23, 2007.
-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: MSNBC
(Photo Courtesy of TV.com)