Deadline Hollywood reports that Robert Downey Jr. is now negotiating to take one of the lead roles in Alfonso Cuarón’s “Gravity.”
It’s been a long time since Cuarón’s “Children Of Men,” and we’ve been eagerly awaiting his next picture. He’s been attached to projects like “The Tourist” and “Life Of Pi” only to drop out as the projects changed shaped or were inevitably delayed, though he has found time to direct a couple of documentary shorts, “The Possibility Of Hope” and “The Shock Doctrine.”
“Gravity,” which briefly had Angelina Jolie attached, is indeed set up at Warner Bros. after some confusion at the end of last month. The film will have Downey Jr. playing “the leader of a team posted at a remote space station. While he and a female colleague are traveling outside the space station, the other team members are decimated by debris from an exploded satellite.” From there they will try to return to Earth, and their families.
If a deal is hashed out with Downey Jr., “Gravity” will go in front of cameras this summer in London. And the leading man might as well stick around after, as Deadline also reports that “Sherlock Holmes 2” is set to go in front of cameras in early fall. Though someone may need to tell Jude Law, as he was a little uncertain last time he talked about the project.
We’re pretty thrilled that Cuarón is finally getting back to work, and on another sci-fi film no less. “Children Of Men” was one of the great ones of the last decade; Cuarón has a great touch so we’re eager to see what he’ll do here. As for “A Boy And His Shoe,” with Charlotte Gainsbourg, Guillaume Canet and Daniel Auteuil we imagine that one is firmly on the backburner for now and will probably change shape if Cuarón decides to return to it.