Just last week Deadline reported that metformin hcl 500mg metformin hcl weight loss Angelina Jolie had passed on a big money offer for the lead role in Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men follow-up, Gravity. It was actually the second time Warner Brothers and Cuarón had offered Jolie the role, and obviously the second time she had passed. WB started to worry they couldn’t get a legitimate female lead that could draw the audience Jolie does, and last week we were hearing they were looking at Natalie Portman and Sandra Bullock.
Now it’s been confirmed by THR blog “Risky Business” that WB gave the go-ahead to Cuarón to offer Portman the lead without an audition or screen test. It’s likely WB’s go-ahead came off the Oscar buzz surrounding Portman’s performance in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, but didn’t everyone already know Portman is a great actress? She was previously nominated for Mike Nichols’ Closer in 2004, and is easily one of the more recognizable female names in Hollywood, even if that’s the result of the Star Wars prequels.
Either way this is definitely a good thing and Portman definitely can handle the kind of role Gravity seems to demand. Portman would play Ryan Stone, an astronaut stranded on a space station after satellite debris crashes into her ship and kills the rest of the crew. For some further details, here’s an excerpt of a script review from our friend Carson over at Scriptshadow (click for the full review with spoilers):
Ryan must jump from point to point – whether it be to a vessel, a station, or an oxygen tank – and survive long enough to make the journey to the next point after that (and so on). Each destination is accompanied by dangerous debris, dropping oxygen, and the strong chance that whatever she’s trying to get to might not be there. Think Apollo 13, but with the odds stacked 1 million times higher against you, if that’s possible.
And for all of this, she’s completely alone, Chuck Noland style. And I’m guessing she won’t even have a volleyball to talk to. That’s sad. Poor Ryan. Everyone needs a volleyball to talk to when they’re alone.
Gravity is co-written by Cuarón, his son Jonas, and Rodrigo Garcia. It will be directed by Cuarón and is set to start production in January. Robert Downey, Jr. is already attached for the supporting role of Matt Kowalski. It’s also of note that the $80 million film will be shot natively in 3D, not post-converted. THANK GOD.
