Julia Stiles’ career has been a bit of an odd one. She’s been working consistently ever since the late ‘90s/early aughts but never quite became a household name. In recent years, she’s probably best known for her role in the ‘Bourne’ trilogy, “Mona Lisa Smile” and her turn on the last season of “Dexter.” And while the actress can never be quite pegged down, we really didn’t expect this bit of news.

As David O. Russell gets the final pieces of his cast for “The Silver Linings Playbook” in place, Deadline reports that Julia Stiles has boarded the film. Based on the book by Matthew Quick, the story centers on Pat Peoples (Bradley Cooper), a former high school teacher who, after being released from a four-year stint in a mental institution, moves back in with his mother; he then seeks to remake himself, finding the titular silver linings in his life. Jennifer Lawrence will play the love interest for Pat, with Stiles as her older sister. Jacki Weaver and Robert De Niro also star in the film, and remember when it was reported that Chris Tucker might be joining as well? That looks to be going through.

While Tucker was also eyeing “Neighborhood Watch” (that role went to Richard Ayoade instead), if he joins ‘Playbook’ it will mark his first film since “Rush Hour 3” and more importantly, the first he’s made without Brett Ratner directing in over a decade. Should the final negotiations get signed and sealed, Tucker will play Pat’s friend who resides in a mental hospital, but breaks out multiple times in order to visit him.

Shooting on the film starts soon and The Weinstein Company will release the film in the latter part of 2012.

Julia Stiles and Taye Diggs are joining Melissa George (A Lonely Place to Die) and David Harbour (The Green Hornet) in Between Us.

Between Us is a big screen adaptation of the off-Broadway play written by Joe Hortua, who is also co-writing the script with the film’s director, Dan Mirvsh (Slam Film Festival co-founder).

It’s a dark comedy centered around two couples, old friends, who discover the mess their lives have become through ambition, money, success, sex and children.

Production will begin in Los Angeles next month.

It’s so exciting to see that Julia is doing a new movie again! Updates will return shortly.

Hendricks recently signed on to star in the ensemble comedy I Don’t Know How She Does It while Dillon is attached to co-star in Roman Polanski’s God of Carnage and Matthew Weiner’s You Are Here. Stiles recently co-starred on Showtime’s Dexter. Hit the jump for the synopsis of Seconds of Pleasure.

Here’s the synopsis for Neil LaBute’s Seconds of Pleasure [via Amazon]:

Neil LaBute is best known for his controversial films In the Company of Men and Your Friends and Neighbors, and his plays The Mercy Seat and The Shape of Things—which he also adapted for the screen. His short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and Harper’s Bazaar, among others. Now, in his debut collection of stories, he brings to the page his cutting humor and compelling take on the shadowy terrain of the human heart. Seductive and disturbing, the stories in Seconds of Pleasure are not for the faint of heart. Each potent and pithy tale finds men and women exploiting—or at the mercy of—the hidden fault lines that separate them: a woman leaves her family at their vacation home after discovering her husband in a compromising situation in “Time Share”; a middle-aged man obsesses over a scab on the calf of a pretty young girl in “Boo-Boo”; and a vain Hollywood actor gets his comeuppance in “Soft Target.” Infused with LaBute’s trademark wit and black humor, Seconds of Pleasure unleashes his imagination in stories that offer unflinching insight into our very human shortcomings and impure urges with shocking candor.

Thanks to Collider.com

Tickets for FAT PIG will be available through Telecharge.com (212-239-6200) and range from $51.50 – $129.00. The playing schedule for FAT PIG is as follows: Tuesday at 7pm, Wednesday through Saturday at 8pm, Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm, and Sunday at 3pm. Tickets are on sale exclusively to American Express cardholders through Friday, February 11.

LaBute’s razor-sharp comedy tells the story of Tom (Hamilton), a very eligible bachelor who falls for the beautiful, bright and plus-sized Helen (Rolff). Tom is overjoyed with his new relationship but his shallow co-workers are less enthusiastic. Tom shrugs off their objections but eventually the cruel jabs of his acerbic friend Carter (Cook) and Jeannie (Stiles), a former flame, force him to question his own values and the importance of conventional good looks. The bitingly funny FAT PIG is Neil LaBute’s candid and unapologetic depiction of our obsession with image and cookie cutter beauty.

The design team for FAT PIG will include scenic designer Neil Patel (Wonderland, ‘Night Mother), lighting designer David Weiner (Reasons To Be Pretty, The Real Thing), and sound designer Robert Kaplowitz (Tony Award winner for Fela). FAT PIG will be produced on Broadway by Heather Provost and Aldo Scrofani.

www.fatpigonbroadway.com

According to Telecharge.com, the sold-out reading boasts the talents of Ethan Hawke, Billy Crudup, Wallace Shawn, Louie CK, Alessandra Nivola, Julia Stiles, Mario Cantone, Emily Mortimer and Jonathan Marc Sherman.

The Odd Couple opened on Broadway in 1965 starring Art Carney and Walter Matthau. Matthau later repeated his work for the 1968 film. The play received a Broadway revival in 2005 starring Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane.

Neil Simon – the only playwright to have four of his works running on Broadway simultaneously – has been honored with three Tony Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, a Drama Desk Award, an American Comedy Award, a Golden Globe Award and the Kennedy Center Honors. Some of his works for the stage include Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, Chapter Two, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues and Broadway Bound. He also contributed librettos to the musicals Sweet Charity; Promises, Promises; They’re Playing Our Song; and The Goodbye Girl.

Cherry Lane Theatre is located at 38 Commerce Street, off 7th Avenue, one block south of Bleecker. For more information visit Telecharge.com.

The three will team up beginning April 12 at the Belasco Theatre on 44th Street for the darkly comic tale of a bachelor who falls for a plus-size girl. The show officially opens April 26.

Stiles began her career on stage at New York’s downtown La MaMa Theatre, and has since appeared in “Twelfth Night” in Central Park, the Broadway revival of David Mamet’s “Oleanna” with Aaron Eckhart and Bill Pullman, and opposite Mia Farrow in “Fran’s Bed.”

“Fat Pig” premiered off-Broadway in 2004, and LaBute, whose films include “Nurse Betty” and “Your Friends and Neighbors,” will be making his Broadway debut as its director.

The 2011 Sundance Film Festival is fast approaching and if you can’t make it to Utah yourself, the festival is bringing some of its highest profile films to a city near you.

The largest and most important U.S. film festival will take place from January 20-30 in and around Park City, Utah and the selection of films this year is nothing short of remarkable. In competition there are films like Michael Rapaport’s Tribe Called Quest documentary Beats, Rhymes and Life, and Vera Farmiga’s Higher Ground, out of competition there are films like Kevin Smith’s Red State and Morgan Spurlock’s documentary The Greatest Movie Ever Sold and even the short film selections have films with stars like Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Julia Stiles and Isabella Rossellini. And that’s not even beginning to scratch the surface. All in all, over 200 brand new movies will be screening at the festival and, if you are a film fan, you owe it to yourself to get up to Utah at some point for this momentous annual event.

If you can’t, though, there are two options. The first is to keep you browser locked onto /Film because we’ll have extensive coverage. Or, if you live in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Brookline, Massachusetts, Brooklyn, New York, Chicago, Illinois, Los Angeles, California, Madison, Wisconsin, Nashville, Tennessee, San Francisco, California or Seattle, Washington, just head to your local theater. On January 27, those cities are going to host special screenings of high profile films will be premiering at Sundance. It’s the Sundance Film Festival USA program. Get all the specifics after the break.

Here’s some info about Sexting.

sexting (Director and Screenwriter: Neil LaBute) – People are not who they seem when a misdirected text message leads a young woman to meet with the wife of her boyfriend and ask what is really going on in their relationship. Cast: Julia Stiles.

But how did Julia Stiles end up on this Showtime hit? What can she tell us about the future of Lumen on the drama? We’ve posted the following excerpts from a TV Fanatic exclusive interview with the actress…

How did the Dexter role come about?
I heard that they wear planning on writing a part for a young woman as a guest star. I circled around it for a while, knowing it was out there, and wanting to know more about it because I was a fan of the show. Then my agent surprised me and told me that I’d been hired. I think that it had to do with a little bit of a campaign. John Goldman, who’s the executive producer, was the person that produced Save the Last Dance, so I think that he was a big advocate of mine.

You mentioned you were a fan. Were you familiar with the series before landing the part?
I had seen Season 4, and when I got the part I went back and watched the first three seasons.

Was there pressure to follow in John Lithgow’s Emmy-winning footsteps from last year?
I try to ignore any kind of pressure. I always believed that my character went in a different kind of direction than what he had to do on the show. Lumen’s relationship with Dexter is different than the almost paternal relationship that John Lithgow’s character had with Dexter. The mentor relationship actually takes her on a strange journey, so I felt that alleviated some of the pressure. But at the same time, I was definitely aware of how great his performance was and how much the audience really appreciated what he did. I didn’t want to be spiteful about, so I try not to think about that.

Will the Lumen/Dexter relationship turn romantic?
I think a relationship as unique as our relationship, to say it would turn romantic doesn’t do that justice. The fun of the show is to be surprised, so I shouldn’t say anything more about that.

How would you describe their bond?
It’s intimate in the truest sense of the word. She is the only one who really knows the truth about who Dexter is and what he does and has accepted that. I think that’s a pretty profound connection. At the same time, she’s carrying around her own shame and sadness and anger about what’s happened to her, and Dexter’s the only one who knows about that.

Talk about working so much with Michael C. Hall.
He’s a great actor. It was an absolute joy. I felt like every day was a delight to go to work, and I love that he’s the kind of actor that works really, really hard and pays attention to every little detail and is very thoughtful and analytical. Also, very emotional, and kind of raw. But he doesn’t announce that he’s working hard, he just quietly goes about his business and it was really exciting to develop this character over the course of many hours with him. I felt like we were really communicating in the scenes. It was very fun to share that time with him. He made me a better actor too. I was very inspired by watching him work.

Is the finale going to answer a big question, or is it more of a cliffhanger?
There’s a finale to it, and there’s also loose ends left open.