According to Variety, Fox Searchlight and Camelot Pictures are co-financing Margaret, a Kenneth Lonergan-directed drama that is fast casting up for a September start.

Anna Paquin is set and thesps Matt Damon, Mark Ruffalo, J. Smith-Cameron and Jeannie Berlin are near deals.

Scott Rudin, Gary Gilbert and Sydney Pollack will produce and Fox Searchlight will distribute. The picture will shoot in New York.

The drama revolves around a Gotham teen, her actress mother and the girl who tries to make amends for her complicity in a terrible traffic accident.

Lonergan wrote the script for Margaret and has worked for two years with the producers to pull it together. Searchlight exec veep Claudia Lewis will oversee the pic. Anthony Minghella and Dan Halsted will exec produce.

Paquin, who stars in Noah Baumbach's The Squid and the Whale, also will reprise her role as Rogue in X-Men 3 for 20th Century Fox this fall.

Damon adds the pic to an already busy schedule, as he completes the Martin Scorsese-directed The Departed and the Robert De Niro-directed The Good Shepherd.

Ruffalo and Smith-Cameron are reuniting with Lonergan, as both were in "You Can Count on Me." Smith-Cameron is also Lonergan's wife.