Saoirse Ronan Shows World 'How I Live Now'

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Saoirse Ronan has built herself a successful career by consistently choosing difficult, complex roles.

From her breakout performance as a guilt-riddled, life-ruining little girl in "Atonement" to a murdered teen watching her family from beyond the grave in "The Lovely Bones," Ronan has more heart-wrenching moments on film than many actors twice her age. She took an unique turn in the actioner, "Hanna," which recently earned her a Critics' Choice Movie Award nomination.

It looks like all that's going to change with her latest role, a lighthearted romp about what happens when fashion dolls wake up and take over a toy store. Just kidding! Her next movie's going to be a bummer too.

Variety reports that Ronan has signed on to star in Kevin Macdonald's WWII drama "How I Live Now," based on Meg Rosoff's novel of the same name.

Ronan will play Daisy, a young New Yorker who finds herself fighting for survival after it turns out that her trip to visit family in England coincides with the beginning of the second World War.

Jeremy Brock, who co-wrote Macdonald-directed "The Last King of Scotland," has teamed up with "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" screenwriter Tony Grisoni for the script.

Ronan will be hard at work on some more teen-friendly fare for the next two years, starring in vampire drama "Byzantium" opposite Gemma Arterton in 2012 and Stephenie Meyer's "The Host" in 2013.