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Mandy Moore joins 'Falling Slowly' cast, new album on the way

By Carina Adly MacKenzie

March 1, 2011 5:51 PM ET

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Mandy Moore's performance at the 83rd Academy Awards -- alongside her "Tangled" co-star, Zachary Levi -- reminded many of us that oh, yeah... she sings, too. Her last two albums, "Amanda Leigh" and "Wild Hope" flew under the radar, taking a new direction as she steered away from her pop roots and toward a more folksy sound.

Now, Moore says she's begun writing her next album and has plans to go into the studio within the next "couple of weeks." She's not taking a break from acting to record, though. Variety reports that Moore has been cast in "Falling Slowly," the directorial debut of Chris Sparling, who is best known for writing "Buried."

"Falling Slowly" is a new kind of film for Moore, who has tended toward romance and indie flicks. It's a thriller ghost story about a couple haunted by a "dark presence." Moore will star opposite Rodrigo Santoro as the said couple.

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