Finding a replacement for
Robert Downey Jr ain't ever gonna be easy but when that replacement is
George Clooney, one of the biggest film stars of the past decade... yeah, that just might do it, wouldn't ya say?
THR say Clooney has signed up for the pivotal male astronaut role in
Alfonso Cuaron's two-character, 3D space thriller
Gravity, which RDJ had to bail on recently because he's making multiple millions upon millions for playing Sherlock Holmes, Tony Stark and The Wizard of Oz in quick succession. Effectively Clooney is saving the eight month troubled production by agreeing to come in for the important scenes that bookend female astronaut
Sandra Bullock's desperate attempts to return to Earth and to her daughter when a huge asteroid field destroys their space station. The role needed a big name to really make the picture work for the money it'll cost ($80 million). It's said Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures were about to cancel the project for good but they sent out a 'hail Mary' to everyone on their Rolodex and Clooney has answered the call at the 11th hour. A spring start date is once again on the agenda, once Clooney finishes directing
The Ideas of March. The special effects heavy Gravity, we are told, is dialogue-free for lengthy stretches, i.e.
Cast Away in Space. Theres also talk of an elaborate, Kubrick-esque, 20 minute set piece in space that Cuaron is fighting to keep in the film, so you can see why WB were hesitant without big names. They had previously lost
Angelina Jolie, Natalie Portman and more recently Robert Downey Jr and it must have seemed like there was some kind of course surrounding the flick... but that's all resolved now, hopefully.
