“Suffragette” star Carey Mulligan is in negotiations to take the lead in another period drama. The Oscar nominee is circling Dee Rees’s indie film “Mudbound,” set in post-World War II Mississippi.

Rees is rewriting the screenplay, which is based on Hillary Jordan’s 2008 novel of the same name. The multi-perspective tragedy has been compared to “As I Lay Dying.”

Mulligan would play Laura McAllan, a college-educated woman who grew up in the city and struggles to adjust to rural life when her husband relocates their family to a farm. Two returning soldiers add more drama to Laura’s life — her brother-in-law and the black son of sharecroppers who comes home to the Jim Crow South a celebrated war hero.

Rees made her narrative feature directorial debut with “Pariah” in 2011. Last year she helmed HBO’s “Bessie,” a biopic of blues singer Bessie Smith starring Queen Latifah. Rees won a DGA award for the TV movie.

[via Variety and Shadow and Act]