Director Cameron Crowe, currently prepping new feature We Bought a Zoo, has a list of actresses he’s interested in for the film.

Deadline is reporting that the top contender is Scarlett Johansson, although Amy Adams, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Rachel McAdams have also been mentioned as potential stars.

This adaptation of the best-selling memoir of Benjamin Mee (an American who built a zoo in the England countryside), has Matt Damon in the main role of the science journalist-turned-zoo owner, and one of the actresses above will be playing his wife (who in real life, sadly passed way in 2007, aged just 40).

Thomas Haden Church has also been cast as Mee’s older brother (who also helped purchase the zoo, along with their mother) and shooting is due to commence early 20011.