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Natalie Portman Joins Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan Project
by Alex Billington
June 15, 2009
It's looking like the next movie from Darren Aronofsky won't necessarily be RoboCop. THR announced tonight that Natalie Portman has been cast as the lead in Black Swan, a ballet project that Aronofsky has been attached with for a few years. It was originally setup at Universal but has been recently making the rounds at other studios since it never get off the ground there. The script for this was originally written by John McLaughlin, who wrote Man of the House in 2005 and has been working on a Splinter Cell script. Mark Heyman, a development exec at Aronofsky's Protozoa Pictures, did a rewrite of that draft recently.
Black Swan centers on a veteran ballerina (to be played by Natalie Portman) who finds herself locked in a competitive situation with a rival dancer, with the stakes and twists increasing as the dancers approach a big performance. But it's unclear whether the rival is a supernatural apparition or if the protagonist is simply having delusions. Word is that it's a "spine-tingler" with elements of The Others, the 2001 Nicole Kidman thriller. At first glance, this doesn't seem like that great of a story, but with Aronofsky directing, I think we can expect great things. He always does something different each time and that's definitely the case here.
As for an update on RoboCop, THR says that if a studio or financer picks up Black Swan, they could begin shooting this year. Aronofsky has not committed to any other projects yet, but they also remind us that "he has been developing the RoboCop reboot at MGM." Last week io9 reported that RoboCop was being called a 2011 project by MGM, which makes me feel like Aronofsky is pushing for this instead. I really hope it gets picked up - seeing Aronofsky and Portman work together would be a dream come true for me! Thoughts?
Reader Feedback - 11 Comments
1
I agree that the story doesn't sound that great at the moment, but I have full faith in Aronofsky. Plus, Portman is fantastic. Looking forward to this one.
Shane on Jun 15, 2009
2
Much Respect to Aronofsky ... It really nice to see him go after other genre's of film and show his talent in different avenues, "Multi talented Director. He already Aced the Mind F*** genre, and he did a damn good job in the drama genre with the Wrestler, Looking forward to it!
WHO on Jun 15, 2009
3
So, it's official, 2011. is INSANE: 1. Hobbit: part I 2. Star Trek II 3. Bourne IV 4. Bond 23 5. Ghostbusters 3 6. Alien prequel 7. Harry Potter 7: part I 8. Tintin ... 9. Robocop (!) ->Also, Aronofsky/Portman sounds like a good idea 😉
m4st4 on Jun 16, 2009
4
What about ROBOCOP?
Darunia on Jun 16, 2009
5
Anything that delays/aborts that completely pointless Robocop remake is fine by me.
Mathieu on Jun 16, 2009
6
#5 Oh yeah...because Paul Verhoeven is, like, Stanley Kubrick of Science Fiction...Not.
m4st4 on Jun 17, 2009
7
She just keeps... getting.... hotter!!! (and is quite good with the right direction)
bozoconnors on Jun 17, 2009
8
#6 Because it's an action classic, a wonderful, inventive satire, and perfect as it is. We don't need yet another remake clogging up cinemas. I'd rather Aronofsky devoted his time and energy to new ideas. Oh, and adding "...not!" on the end of sentences? What is this - 1992?! 😉
Mathieu on Jun 17, 2009
9
It seems like a nice idea to have a dancer being delusional about a rival dancer. Darren could pull it of pretty well.
Fisherr on Jun 18, 2009
10
@ #8 Yeah! he should have said SIKE! instead!
Cmurder on Jun 26, 2009
11
All of those movies come out in 2011? I think that will be a great year for the movie industry.
High deductible health insurance on Sep 17, 2009
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