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Another day, another vague wish-list of actresses for a high profile project! Despite rumors of the R-rated films hitting budgetary troubles, casting seems to be moving forward on the Ridley Scott-helmed prequels to "Alien." Rumors have been rife for a while that, as with the original films, the lead would be a female role, and Gemma Arterton revealed that she was set for a meeting with Scott a few weeks ago (and possibly blowing her chances as a result).
Now, Deadline report that Fox and Scott have met with a number of actresses for the project, including "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" star Noomi Rapace, Carey Mulligan and "Bright Star" break-out Abbie Cornish. The latter worked with Scott on the, um, 'comedy' "A Good Year," so might be seen to a strong contender, but Deadline suggest that Rapace, in particular, 'left a strong impression."
The Swedish actress, who's set to start filming on her Hollywood debut in "Sherlock Holmes 2" shortly, has been rumored to be meeting for the role for months now, and she certainly has a steely, Sigourney Weaver-esque quality to her. But if this film is happening -- and we'd just like to reiterate that it really doesn't have to, and that there have been no good prequels ever, as you'll find from this list -- we'd probably rather that the lead character wasn't a Ripley clone. But at the same time, it'd break our hearts a little bit if Mulligan or Cornish took the role.
It's still early in the process, so we're sure that dozens and dozens of candidates will be thrown about in the next few weeks. Maybe at some stage, we'll be able to summon up any feeling other than total apathy for these films as well!
Last we heard, the word surrounding Sam Mendes' adaptation of Ian McEwan's "On Chesil Beach" was not promising. In a story eventually pulled from the web, the Telegraph noted that producers (Focus Features) postponed the film after a lengthy pre-production, noting that "there need to be leaves on the trees." While a male co-star hadn't been found (although we were told by a good source that Mendes badly wanted Andrew Garfield), production had been pushed to next year and it was unknown if Carey Mulligan -- linked to the lead role -- or even Mendes himself, would be returning. Well it appears that the film now has some signs of life again.
In a piece in the Guardian (via Bleeding Cool) today about French finance of British film, this intriguing tidbit was buried in the report: "StudioCanal is also looking at the Sam Mendes project On Chesil Beach, based on Ian McEwan’s novel, after US studio backer Focus Features dropped out." Of course, "looking" could mean anything at this point, and ultimately could lead to nothing, but it does seem as if the project is trying to find new backers to help get it in front of cameras and that Mendes at least is still involved (though still no word if Mulligan is still eyeing the lead role).
Things have otherwise been quiet on the Mendes front. He's circled a couple of major franchise films during the year -- "Oz The Great And Powerful" (which went to Sam Raimi) and "Hunger Games" (which went to Gary Ross) -- and of course, he's still attached to "Bond 23," but that project is still a ways off. Even with new management scheduled to take over MGM any day now, they will have no money to pour into anything else but "The Hobbit."
Alfonso Cuarón's troubled, ambitious and potentially great sci-fi thriller "Gravity" will continue the search for its leading lady as Natalie Portman has officially turned down the lead role.
The news is a major bummer for the $80 million production, which can only move forward if it can find a bankable lead female star to topline the pic. Angelina Jolie was the favored choice but turned down the part twice, so Warner Bros. took a long look at their list of contenders and made an offer to Portman. It was last reported that she was in active negotiations, but clearly, she has moved on.
The question now facing the production is which direction to go in. Cuarón was willing to bring the film in on a smaller budget to get an actress of his choice, but Warner Bros., who are worried about marketing a female-led sci-fi action film (not exactly a guarantee of box office success), want a more bankable name. We imagine they'll go back and look at recognized names like Sandra Bullock, Naomi Watts and Scarlett Johansson who have been mentioned as candidates while other names linked as potential leads that have included Marion Cotillard, Carey Mulligan, Sienna Miller, Abbie Cornish, Rebecca Hall, Olivia Wilde and Blake Lively.
At this point, we don't care who is cast really, we just want the film to get made. We hope that Portman's pass on the project isn't a harbinger of worse things to come. Here's hoping Cuarón and Warner Bros. can find a leading lady for the project soon. [Deadline]
Another day, another vague wish-list of actresses for a high profile project! Despite rumors of the R-rated films hitting budgetary troubles, casting seems to be moving forward on the Ridley Scott-helmed prequels to "Alien." Rumors have been rife for a while that, as with the original films, the lead would be a female role, and Gemma Arterton revealed that she was set for a meeting with Scott a few weeks ago (and possibly blowing her chances as a result).
