ComingSoon.net has received an unconfirmed tip that Elizabeth Banks (Role Models, Betty Brant in the “Spider-Man” movies) is in talks to play the female lead opposite Bradley Cooper in director Neil Burger’s Dark Fields.

The film, based on the book by Alan Glynn, follows a down-and-out writer (Cooper) who gets his hands on a top-secret pharmaceutical drug that makes one smarter. He experiences sudden financial and social success but soon discovers that the drug has lethal and lasting side effects. Before long, mysterious antagonists are pursuing him.

The production has also brought on director of photography Jo Willems (30 Days of Night), VFX guru Christopher Scollard (Fight Club) and production designer Carlos Barbosa (“24″).

Leslie Dixon (The Thomas Crown Affair), who wrote the script, will produce with Scott Kroopf and Relativity’s Ryan Kavanaugh. Relativity’s Tucker Tooley will executive produce.

Universal will distribute via Relativity’s Rogue Pictures.

Even some of Hollywood’s most in-demand actresses have to occasionally beg for work. Take Elizabeth Banks. The star of 40-year-old Virgin, W., and Zack and Miri Make a Porno tells me that her upcoming 30 Rock gig resulted from her reaching out to the Emmy-winning comedy and not the other way around. “I definitely put feelers out, like, ‘I would love to be on your show,’” she confesses. “And they did it. They made it happen! I’m a huge fan, so this is a dream come true.”

Banks, who is on board for at least four episodes (the first of which airs in February), plays a right-leaning financial guru who falls for fellow conservative Jack (Alec Baldwin) after he appears as a guest on her CNBC talk show. “She’s basically Sean Hannity in a skirt,” she explains. “What’s great about her relationship with Jack is they’re equals. She’s not some [pretty] young thing that he has a fling with. She really challenges him.”

Despite a string of sitcom appearances — her Rock role follows stints on Modern Family and Scrubs — Banks says she’s “having too much fun making movies” to commit to a TV show full-time. To wit, she just wrapped the Paul Haggis thriller The Next Three Days (she plays Russell Crowe’s incarcerated wife). “The [TV jobs] are a really fun thing to do between movie gigs,” she says. “On Monday I’m hanging out of a car [filming Three Days], and on Tuesday I’m working with two national treasures, Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin — not to mention Tracy Morgan.”

From the Ausiello Files

Elizabeth Banks continues to exhibit impeccable taste when it comes to the company she keeps on the tube.

Fresh off her memorable guest turn on ABC’s Modern Family, my former Scrubs co-star is headed to 30 Rock to play the latest notch on Jack Donaghy’s belt, sources confirm to me exclusively.

NBC declined to comment, but I’m told Banks will appear in at least four episodes.

This marks the second high-profile romance for Alec Baldwin’s corporate shill this season. This week, Julianne Moore kicks off a multi-episode arc as Jack’s high school crush.

But back to Banks, would someone please explain to me why she doesn’t have her own show yet? It’s only a matter of time, right?

From the Ausiello Files

Elizabeth Banks is in a new short film called “The Bridge Bash,” which also stars Paul Rudd, Justin Long and others.

The Bridge Bash is a star-studded mockumentary short due online in late December. APOLLO’s CRED had a chat with the two men behind the party puzzle piece-finding mission, Adam Moreno, the writer, producer and co-director, and Alex Mamlet, the producer and co-director. As a part of their absurdist PR plan for promoting the film, they pretended all this was real and that master disc scratcher DJ Blue who saved the ‘party’ took years to find – despite the fact that the real DJ Blue is in fact Moreno himself.

Providing necessary clout to the film is an eclectic line-up of celebrities, as indicated in the trailer, including Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Ethan Hawke, Justin Long, Billy Crudup, Sam Rockwell, Peter Dinklage, David Wain, Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter. Additional details about the film are available at bridgebash.com.

From Appolo’s Cred

Elizabeth Banks is in final negotiations to star in “The Next Three Days” for writer-director Paul Haggis at Lionsgate.

Banks will play the lead role of Laura, a woman who is imprisoned for a murder she claims she didn’t commit, as her husband, the recently cast Russell Crowe, desperately tries to vindicate her.

The suspense drama is a remake of the 2008 French thriller “Pour Elle,” which was written and directed by Fred Cavaye.

Haggis, his Highway 61 Films partner Michael Nozik and Fidelite’s Marc Missonnier and Olivier Delbosc are producing. Lionsgate execs Alli Shearmur and Wolfgang Hammer are overseeing for the studio.

Filming is scheduled to begin next month.

Banks, who is repped by UTA and Untitled Entertainment, most recently starred in “Zach and Miri Make a Porno,” “The Uninvited” and “W.” She is currently shooting the comedy “The Details” opposite Tobey Maguire.

Banks is attached to star in and produce, through her Brownstone Prods., the comedy “Forever 21,” which is in development at DreamWorks.

From The Hollywood Reporter