Faster than you can say, “fuck that, this project bores me, pass,” a new actress (sorta) has been thrown back into the mix for “Gravity.” Poor Alfonso Cuaron. How many times does the dude have to have his heart broken this week?
So like, what, minutes ago, Natalie Portman turned down the lead role as an astronaut in Cuaron’s sci-fi action drama, “Gravity,” because, well, none of us really know why (we’ll get to that in a sec).
In talks now is Sandra Bullock, who has reportedly been Warner Bros. first choice for the role for a long time now because of her incredible 2009 box-office performance. Yes, her numbers last year (approximately $453.9 million just domestically) even blew Angelina Jolie’s phenomenal 2008 numbers out of the water (“Wanted,” “Changeling” and “Kung Fu Panda” grossed an approximate $385.6 million domestically). Jolie, ironically the female who first kicked off this project as its first choice.
WB have essentially been patiently waiting for Cuaron to get over himself and choose Bullock, but the director has basically offered the gig to almost everyone else in Hollywood (names like Marion Cotillard, Carey Mulligan, Sienna Miller, Abbie Cornish, Rebecca Hall, Olivia Wilde and Blake Lively have all been batted around).
Well, Variety says Cuaron and WB have finally offered the role to America’s new sweetheart and if the director is smart, he’ll take it. And well, he has. This is essentially what you can call the project’s last lifeline and apparently Bullock is in negotiations as we speak.
Frankly, we’d have expected Bullock to perhaps be mildly offended given that Cuaron wanted to hire almost every young starlet in Hollywood before her. even if the role is probably more suited to her age (who’s gonna buy a 25 year old astronaut? Now a 40-something one, that’s more plausible). But Bullock’s got that whole wisdom thing happening (gotta love old age and not giving a shit about petty nonsense) and she’s probably shrugged in her own way and realizes she’s just rescued an $80 million dollar film that was likely going to get tossed in the garbage (or dramatically reduced in scope and budget) if she didn’t sign on board.
Some have asked. Why are all the ladies passing? Our speculation. When we first revealed the plot, we were honestly very kind and gracious to what felt very much like a first draft. As we’ve said often and lately on our message boards, the female character is under-drawn and the Robert Downey Jr. character is much more interesting. With all the females passing on it, our guess, is the script wasn’t improved that much character-wise. Essentially, it was/is, a race against time film. The film centers around two astronauts fighting to survive on a remote space station after satellite debris wipes out the rest of the crew and their ship. The second half of the picture is the female astronaut trying desperately to get back to earth and her daughter (the daughter is a new development, so clearly the character has been worked on).
But with Bullock on board, “Gravity,” has legs to stand on and won’t be floating into the Hollywood ether of projects that never came to pass. We’re happy for Cuaron, but honestly, we’d love to read a new version of the script. The original version was thrilling, but you do need a little more than that. Let’s hope a happy ending has been found, the film will shoot sometime in 2011 and then we’ll all have an ambitious new treat to marvel at sometime in 2012.
