Oh boy, it’s probably not going to be a great morning for Charlize Theron‘s PR rep. Last night, news broke that Theron had left Clint Eastwood‘s “J. Edgar” in favor of taking a look at a the lead role, freshly rewritten with her in mind, in Ridley Scott‘s developing “Alien” prequel. But it appears that’s not all that’s cooking for the suddenly-very-in-demand actress.
Within Deadline’s story about Ed Westwick being cast in “J. Edgar” (poor guy, his bit of good news got totally overshadowed by all things Theron) is a brief morsel in a throwaway line in which it’s revealed that the actress is “signing on” for “Snow White & The Huntsman.” Wait, what? Last month the site reported that the actress was in negotiations for the part of the Evil Queen in Universal‘s revisionist fairy tale — and it appears they’re just linking back to that story — but if she’s still in the mix for ‘Huntsman’ (or is close to signing) this now opens up a few more questions.
Firstly, the scheduling of the film, which was originally planned to have gone in front of cameras already, has obviously been pushed back a bit. There’s still no word on who might play Snow White with a crop of newcomers including Riley Keough, Felicity Jones, Bella Heathcoat and Alicia Vikander previously reported to be in the running. There is also the matter of the role of the Huntsman, a part Michael Fassbender was said to be a frontrunner for, but with the actor currently shooting Steve McQueen‘s sex addiction drama “Shame” and eyeing a role in the lit world drama “Genius” with Sean Penn that’s aiming to shoot in the summer, we wonder if he’s moved on.
And if indeed Theron has been cast in “Snow White & The Huntsman,” which is racing to get finished ahead of Relativity‘s competing project, “The Brothers Grimm: Snow White,” how will this affect the production of Ridley Scott’s “Alien” prequel? Theron is reportedly going to have a script in hand this week with a decision expected on whether she’ll play the part of Elizabeth Shaw or not to follow shortly. It seems just like Alfonso Cuaron‘s “Gravity” over at Warner Bros.; 20th Century Fox are gunshy about giving a greenlight until they have a solid, widely known actress in the lead role (Scott continues to campaign for Noomi Rapace but it appears that’s unlikely to happen) and even if ‘Huntsman’ shoots soon, we could see the studio waiting to start production on ‘Alien’ if it means they have a name actress in the top slot. Either way, Theron’s spring/summer 2011 window is very valuable because in the fall she’s expected to return to the delayed “Mad Max” to begin shooting.
If we had to make a guess on all of this, we think Theron has narrowed her choices down to ‘Huntsman’ and ‘Alien’ and whichever looks ready to move and can get in the can before this fall, will likely get her stamp of approval. Word on ‘Huntsman’ has been fairly quiet and if we were betting men, we’d wager Ridley Scott, who has been putting the pieces of his team in place, is probably champing at the bit, and can likely get his ‘Alien’ prequel locked down very quickly. We imagine more official word from Theron’s people will likely arrive shortly but for now, it looks like the actress has her pick of two very high-profile projects.