Natalie Portman also walks out on Pride And Prejudice And Zombies, does the same for Gravity

By Sean O'Neal | October 7, 2010 | 8:17pm

Aux Features Film

Only two days after director David O. Russell’s exit, Natalie Portman has also walked out of Pride And Prejudice And Zombies, the big-screen adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel about what it would be like if the prim, ~~Victorian-era~~ Regency-era characters in Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice also had to contend with zombies. Wouldn’t that be weird and funny for a long time, like, for the entire length of a book or two-hour movie? No word on whether this means David O. Russell could return as director, considering it was his “scheduling conflicts” with Portman that led to his exit, but as we all know, David O. Russell only walks out of things. (The “O” stands for “Outta here.”) Anyway, Portman is staying on as executive producer of this now-doomed project that we’re obviously sort of exhausted with already.

Speaking of Natalie Portman walking out of things, she’s become the latest actress to pass on starring in Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity, a sci-fi tale from the Children Of Men director about the lone survivor of a space mission trying to return to Earth. Gravity was originally attached to Angelina Jolie, but Deadline reports that now that both she and Portman have turned it down, producers have moved on to Sandra Bullock for the role—although they're still also reportedly considering nearly every actress in the industry, including Naomi Watts, Marion Cotillard, Carey Mulligan, Scarlett Johansson, Sienna Miller, Abbie Cornish, Rebecca Hall, Olivia Wilde, and Blake Lively. Hey, wouldn’t it be weird and funny if their casting sessions were interrupted by zombies? They’d be like, “Okay Blake, let’s take it from the scene where the asteroid is OH MY GOD MY LIMBS ARE BEING TORN FROM MY BODY BY THE UNDEAD.” That would make a terrific book and then movie.