AnnaSophia Robb To Play Young Carrie Bradshaw In CW Pilot 'Carrie Diaries' (original) (raw)

After an extensive search that included testing several young actresses for the role, Soul Surfer star AnnaSophia Robb has been cast as young Carrie Bradshaw in the CW drama pilot Carrie Diaries. The project, from Warner Bros TV and Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage’s Fake Empire, is based on Candace Bushnell’s novel, a prequel to her best-seller Sex And The City that was adapted into the iconic HBO series. It chronicles Carrie’s coming of age in the 1980s when she asks her first questions about love, sex, friendship and family while exploring the worlds of high school and Manhattan. Amy Harris (Gossip Girl) wrote the script and is executive producing with Bushnell, Schwartz, Savage and Len Goldstein. The casting marks a homecoming of sorts for Robb, who got her first break on the CW’s predecessor the WB, where she was cast as the lead in the 2004 telefilm An American Girl. Coincidentally, that film was executive produced by Julia Roberts, whose niece, Emma Roberts, was also in contention for the role of Carrie. Robb, repped by CAA and Untitled, segued into a feature career with major roles in such movies as Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Race To Witch Mountain, The Space Between and most recently the based-on-a-true story Soul Surfer, in which she portrayed the title character, teen surfer Bethany Hamilton, who lost an arm in a shark attack.