Film underway based on José Saramago's "Blindness"

Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo are set to star in the film adaptation of Nobel Prize winner José Saramago's 1995 novel, Blindness. The novel concerns a community in which an epidemic causes everyone to become blind, except the doctor's wife who feigns blindness (the character Julianne Moore will play). Chaos ensues, social structures collapse, and the doctor's wife tries to lead one group of blind people to safety.

Mark Ruffalo will play the doctor, Sandra Oh will play the Minister of Health, Gael Garcia Bernal will play the king of ward 3, and Danny Glover will play the narrator, according to imdb.com. No word yet if any blind actors are attached to the project.

Entertainment Weekly speculates that the film version will be one to watch for at the 2009 Academy Awards. The film is being directed by Brazilian Fernando Meirelles, who directed 2005's "The Constant Gardener."