Director Woody Allen signs actress Freida Pinto for his next film

Actress Freida Pintou00a0will star in the director's next opposite Anthony Hopkins

Post Slumdog Millionaire, Freida Pinto has bagged another prestigious project. The actress confirmed on an American morning programme (The Today show) that she's doing Woody Allen's next.

Freida was on the show along with the cast and crew of Slumdog talking about the success of the film on Oscar night.

During her stay in Hollywood promoting Slumdog, Freida got herself an agent and did the rounds of several studios meeting producers.
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Buzz is that Woody Allen watched Slumdog and was sure he wanted to cast Freida in his next. When asked about her collaboration with Woody, Frieda said on the show, "Yes, it's up in July this year.

So thank you, Danny Boyle for helping me take off." On the show, the host also discussed the possibility of Pinto notching herself an Oscar nod next year, like Penelope Cruz, who won the best supporting actress for Woody's Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Sources reveal the yet untitled film will also star Naomi Watts, who's cast opposite Josh Brolin while Freida will star along with Sir Anthony Hopkins.

Interestingly, Woody casting Freida is a break from working with his muse Scarlett Johansson, who's a permanent fixture in all his recent films.

After the announcement, film buffs on various Hollywood sites started discussing the news. Here are some excerpts, "Awesome news about Freida. Am a bit tired of Scarlett in Woody's movies... so I'm glad he is offering Pinto, Watts and Wood parts."

"Hopefully, Frieda can give a great performance so she can shut the haters and their rumblings. Woody has that ability to extract great performances from his women.

Take ScarJo in Match Point and Penelope in VCB. Glad Penelope won, wish Scarlett was at least nominated for an Oscar, she was great."

Meanwhile other people cast their nets...

As reported 'Dev's in Night flick'; HiTLIST; February 3), Freida's Slumdog co-star Dev Patel will appear in Manoj Shyamalan's The Last Airbender.

The actor replaces pop star Jesse McCartney who was slated to play the original role.

The film is based on the hit animated television series called Avtaar The Last Airbender.