Natalie Portman Brings Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Black Swan’ to Life
Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on June 16, 2009
There is something to be learned by looking at the current situation of director Darren Aronofsky and so many other filmmakers before him: if you make a critical hit such as The Wrestler, all of those ‘passion projects’ that have been collecting dust in studio offices in Hollywood seem to ‘magically’ gather steam. In this case, we have a project called Black Swan that Aronofsky was developing at Universal back in 2007. It had since gone into turnaround.
Two years, an Indie Spirit Award and a few acting Oscar nominations later for The Wrestler and lookie, lookie, Black Swan seems to be back on track. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Natalie Portman has been attached to play the lead and that the film has gone through a rewrite by Mark Heyman, one of the development execs at Aronofsky’s Protozoa Pictures.
According to THR, Swan centers on a veteran ballerina (Portman) who finds herself locked in a competitive situation with a rival dancer, with the stakes and twists increasing as the dancers approach a big performance. But it’s unclear whether the rival is a supernatural apparition or if the protagonist is simply having delusions.
Sounds like an interesting premise — and who can resist being excited about what Aronofsky is doing next, even if it isn’t Robocop? Not any of us here in the blogosphere, that’s for sure. I was on The Wrestler bus with everyone else, but I have no illusions about the fact that Darren Aronosky has seen his share of ups and downs. The true test for the director is how he follows his most acclaimed work — and from here, it appears as if he’s got a pretty cool supernatural thriller in the works. Pending execution, this could be the start of a winning streak.
What do you think about Portman and the premise for Black Swan?
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