You’d have thought that with a filmmaker as well respected as Alfonso Cuaron, people would be lining up to work with him. However with Gravity, which he’s been trying to put together for the last couple of years, the director had to move studios after the first lost faith, his leading lady, Angelina Jolie, dropped out, and he’s been having difficulty finding a replacement.
One of the issues is that it’s pretty much a one-person drama, about a team of astonauts repairing the Hubble telescope who get hit by debris from an exploded satellite, killing nearly everyone. The film then revolves around the surviving female astronaut’s battle to fight her way back to Earth and reunite with her daughter. As the movie is so reliant on its female lead, who’ll be alone on screen most of the time, the studio will only greenlight it with the right actress attached, and it appears some actresses have been intimidated by having to carry an $80 million alone.
Cuaron and Warner Bros thought they’d found the right star recently with Natalie Portman in talks for the main role (after Jolie said no for a second time), however it appears she’s now passed. There’s no info on why Portman declined (Deadline’s report also suggests she’s out of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies too), but Warner hasn’t given up yet, and THR says that Sandra Bullock is now in active negotiations for the role. They seem to think this casting is all but certain, with Bullock extremely keen to star.
At this stage, I’d imagine Cuaron would be happy to have just about anyone say yes who the studio likes enough to get the movie greenlit. Bullock may be a good choice, even if she is a little older than previous candidates (who also included Scarlet Johansson and Marion Cotillard).