As she’s currently just about the most in-demand actress in Hollywood, saying a studio is interested in Natalie Portman for a project is pretty much just stating the obvious. However we report the news, and Vulture says that Portman has joined the list of actresses in contention for the main role in the planned prequel to Alien.
However what sets Portman apart is that while the likes of Noomi Rapace have been mentioned as people director Ridley Scott is interested in, Portman is said to be 20th Century Fox’s first choice to play the ‘female Colonial Marine general’ who’ll come up against the xenomorph threat.
It also seems that while recent reports suggested the Alien prequel had stalled over Scott’s desire for a gargantuan budget and an R-rating, Damon Lindelof has now handed in his rewritten draft of the screenplay, and it’s gotten Fox all excited again. Apparently ‘another reason Fox execs are pleased with Lindelofs re-write of original screenwriter Jon Spaihts script is that it’s still aimed at a more accessible PG-13 rating. “The thinking,” explains one insider, “is that if the original Alien were released today, minus the F-bombs, you could still get a PG-13. Alien is a very Jaws-ian movie: Theres no sex, and while theres lots of violence, most of it is off-camera. Maybe youd have to cut away from certain scenes two seconds earlier, but it could be done.”‘
It still sounds like there may be tension between Scott and Fox over the rating, but is seems the studio feels that with the new script they may get their way. Either way, let’s hope it happens, as with Scott on board and the promise it’ll take the franchise back to its roots, it’s a very intriguing prospect. Scott has said it’ll explain things like the Space Jockey from the first film, and how the crashed ship that Ripley and her crew explore on LV-426 got there in the first place.