Before James Franco gets trapped under a boulder and has to amputate his own arm in Danny Boyle's 127 Hours, it seems he'll at least first get to enjoy the company of two beautiful young women along the way.

Joining the previously announced Amber Tamblyn, Kate Mara is now in negotiations to also join the cast. The duo would play a pair of hikers that Franco's character, Aron Ralston, meets near the beginning of his rather perilous journey. For anyone unfamiliar with his story, Ralston is a mountaineer who became trapped while climbing in Utah and was forced to remove his own arm to survive. The harrowing tale, which is being scripted by Simon Beaufoy, should give Boyle, Franco and their two lady friends plenty of great stuff to work with.

Hit the jump to find out more about what Kate Mara has been up to lately.

Mara's most recent acting gig was in HappyThankYouMorePlease, the directing debut from How I Met Your Mother star Josh Radnor, which recently made its debut to generally good reviews at Sundance. The flick, which also stars Malin Akerman and Tony Hale, is about a group of young New Yorkers trying to figure what exactly to do with their lives.

She's also returning to the role of Eric's (Kevin Connolly) assistant on HBO's Entourage, and has two other big-screen appearances coming as well. She'll appear in a little movie you may have heard of called Iron Man 2 in the role of Bethany Cabe when that opens May 7. And she's also recently finished shooting Ironclad with Paul Giamatti, James Purefoy and director Jonathan English. The flick is about a group of the Knights Templar who defend Rochester Castle against the tyrannical King John (Giamatti), and Mara will play Lady Isabel.

That's certainly a busy slate, but my money's still on 127 Hours as being the best thing that will come out of all this.

(via THR)