Breakout: Three reasons Rooney Mara is going to make it big in 2010.

1) She plays the kind-of-sort-of girlfriend of loveable geek-of-the-moment Michael Cera in Youth in Revolt. Like their relationship, the film’s a bit off-on, but Mara is great as a French-loving elusive teen who doesn’t know what she wants.

2) She’s been cast as the lead in slasher remake A Nightmare on Elm Street. Which means that even if the film’s bollocks, she’ll have made all eyes turn in her direction. And if it’s a franchise starter, endless sequels could prove very profitable.

3) She’s co-starring with Justin Timberlake and Jesse Eisenberg in Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Network. Yeah, the Facebook movie. It could be good. It could be bad. Either way, she’s making friends.

Damaged Goods? Her debut role was in the diabolical Urban Legends 3: Bloody Mary. Let’s hope Elm Street fares better.

The New: Nancy Thompson

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