Thesp to play lab tech who helps man erase his memory

By JILL FEIWELL

Mark Ruffalo is in final negotiations to join Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet and Kirsten Dunst in Focus Features' "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."

Michel Gondry ("Human Nature") directs from a script by Charlie Kaufman.

Like Kaufman's "Being John Malkovich," much of "Sunshine" takes place in the recesses of the human brain. Story concerns a man who tries to erase a particularly steamy relationship he had with an ex-mate. Ruffalo will play a lab technician involved in the memory-erasing procedure.

Pic is skedded to go before cameras in mid-January in Gotham.

Ruffalo, whose film credits include "You Can Count on Me" and "Windtalkers," recently completed Jane Campion's "In the Cut," opposite Meg Ryan. Thesp also has a trio of other pics in the can: "XX/XY," "A View From the Top" and "My Life Without Me."

Date in print: Mon., Dec. 9, 2002, Los Angeles