Thesp would be involved in memory elimination plot

By MICHAEL FLEMING

Kirsten Dunst is negotiating to star with Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," which Michel Gondry will direct from a script by Charlie Kaufman. The drama is being financed by Focus Features.

Like Kaufman's "Being John Malkovich," much of "Sunshine" takes place in the recesses of the brain. Carrey will play a man who tries to erase a particularly steamy relationship he had with his ex-mate, and Dunst will portray an office receptionist who gets caught up in the complications of the memory elimination process.

Dunst, repped by WMA and Industry, is currently starring alongside Julia Roberts in the Mike Newell-directed "Mona Lisa's Smile," and, if dates work out, she will move right to "Sunshine" in January. Following that, Dunst will reprise her role alongside Tobey Maguire in "The Amazing Spider-Man," the Sam Raimi-directed sequel expected to begin production sometime next spring. Columbia is releasing that movie in May 2004.

Gondry also directed Kaufman's "Human Nature."