Ron Howard's Daughter Hits The Big Time

Director Ron Howard's daughter BRYCE is following her father into Hollywood - she's won a lead role in M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN's new film THE WOODS.

Bryce, who has had brief uncredited appearances in her father's APOLLO 13 and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, secured the part after the sixth sense filmmaker saw her perform in a New York stage production of AS YOU LIKE IT.

SPIDER-MAN star Kirsten Dunst had previously been tipped for the role, but pulled out to star in Cameron Crowe's upcoming Elizabethtown.

Hunky stars Ashton Kutcher and Joaquin Phoenix are also expected to appear in the Disney produced film, about a small community who live in fear of a mythical race of creatures residing in the woods surrounding their village.