The cast of Darren Aronofsky’s ballet-world-set psychological, supernatural drama, “Black Swan,” is taking shape which makes a lot of sense considering it’s set to shoot any day now in New York (original reports said October, but they must have bumped it a few weeks).
Names added to the cast, which already stars Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, are Winona Ryder, French actor Vincent Cassell and Barbara Hershey who hasn’t done a lot of high-profile acting in recent years.
The story centers on a talented ballerina (Portman), in the New York City Ballet who is tormented by a rival (Kunis) who may or may not be a figment of the dancer’s imagination and the script apparently features a “ecstasy-induced hungry aggressive sex” scene between the two of them which got a lot of writers in a tizzy, but Kunis wouldn’t confirm it when recently asked. We have a very recent copy of the script and will be looking into it shortly.
According to /Film, Ryder plays a fellow dancer, once the star of most productions, now nearing the end of her career, Cassel plays the “sinister” director of the Black Swan stage production and Hershey plays Portman’s mother.
These choices are fine (Cassell is always excellent), but we remind everyone, when was the last time Winona Ryder was good in a movie? But it’s a name for the cast, so that’s at least a good look.
“Black Swan” is one of those projects you just never expected to happen. Aronofsky became attached to the project in 2007, but Universal put it into turnaround and considering everything else he had on his plate, many assumed a ballet movie by the maker of “The Fountain” and “Requiem For A Dream” would just quietly go away.
However, in 2009’s economic climate, this sounds like a relatively modestly-budgeted film with less ambitious high-concept aims (more like “The Wrestler”) and is exactly the type of smaller-scale project most auteurs are tackling these days (see David Fincher taking “The Social Network” too) until the recession is truly over and they can green light bigger pictures. Though in the case of Aronofksy, after such success with “The Wrestler,” he was probably going to go smaller, regardless. Apparently Fox Searchlight are eyeing distribution rights which makes sense considering they released “The Wrestler” as well and it sounds like a mini-major type picture in their ball park.
