Alfonso Cuaron’s (Children of Men) sci-fi survival film Gravity has been up and down. Angelina Jolie had been offered the main role, but she pulled out of the running and the future of the film looked doubtful, despite Robert Downey Jr being attached. The studio really wanted Jolie.
However, Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan debuted at the Venice and Telluride film festivals last week and Natalie Portman’s performance has been hailed as excellent. So good in fact that Warner Bros. offered her the role in Gravity according to Risky Business.
The $80 million 3D survival story, which Alfonso Cuaron will direct, centers on a woman stranded on a space station after satellite debris slams into it and wipes out the rest of the crew. Robert Downey Jr. has a supporting role, but much of the picture is devoted to the female character, who must survive a solitary ordeal much in the way Tom Hanks did in Cast Away or James Franco does in 127 Hours.
Could this lead to Portman being nominated for an Oscar as the Academy love the lone survivor type deals although the space setting would probably put them off.
The main thing that intrigues me is that the film could possibly all one long shot. Script Shadow have seen a draft of the script and had this to say about it:everything takes place in real-time. There isn’t a single time cut in the film. In fact, what I’m about to say is so shocking if it’s true, movie geeks might spontaneously combust when they hear it. So I need you to go find your spontaneous combustion prevention kit, put it on, and sit down. Now I have NO PROOF of this. It does not say it anywhere in the script. So this still just a GUESS. But two things have led me to this conclusion. First, we know Cuaron likes shooting long continuous shots. He did it numerous times in Children of Men. Combining that knowledge with the way this script is written, I think Cuaron plans to shoot Gravity in a single shot. Yes, I think this guy is going to give us a 3-D movie set in space filmed in one continuous shot.
Is that even possible?? Well, read the script. Even when we get pulled away from Ryan (the main female character), it always seems like the camera is flying away and then coming back. If that’s true, this could seriously be one of the coolest fucking movies ever made.
Portman was offered the role without a screentest and is expected to read the latest version of the script this week and make her decision shortly.
If she does accept the role then they would begin shooting at the end of January.
Would you prefer seeing Portman in space instead of Jolie? Has Jolie been foolish turning down the role?
