More About Cuaron’s GRAVITY Starring RDJ

As you know, Alfonso Cuaron (Y Tu Mama Tambien, Children Of Men) is going to direct GRAVITY starring Robert Downey Jr. after Angelina Jolie decided not to be attached to the project. Significant details have surfaced via The Playlist that help us see how GRAVITY is coming along so far and a bit on what it’s about..

Previous plot indicated that the lead character will be “playing the sole surviving human member of a space mission, desperately trying to return home to Earth and her daughter.” Previously housed at Universal, GRAVITY was once put in a turnaround because they think it was “artistically challenging”. Now Warner Bros. and producer David Heyman (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) and Legendary Pictures are developing the project. Written by Cuaron and his son Jonas, the storyline now goes like this..”Downey will play 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.”

But now, Framestore, U.K’s biggest FX company (The Golden Compass, Avatar) had the statement below indicating that RDJ is just supporting role because a woman will still be the lead character in the story.
The timeline will be set in the present day or near future, the film will be full of CG and shot in Cuaron’s trademark fluid style.
As far as RDJ’s scheduling goes, Deadline said he’ll shoot GRAVITY first and then leave to do SHERLOCK HOLMES 2 and then return again to finish GRAVITY.

Framestore is about to embark on one of its greatest challenges yet, Gravity is the next Avatar in terms of ambition. There are many innovative and visually stunning aims for this project.

The entire film weill be made here at Framestore. In effect the film, as Avatar was, is 60% CG feature animation with the balance being hybrid CG and live action elements.

Starring Robert Downey Junior, the film is a contemporary survival thriller that follows a woman as she attempts to make her way back to earth after a satellite crash sets off a chain reaction of further crashes. Because it’s set in space, most shots require every element to float in zero-gravity.

But then factor in that this a stylish Cuarón flick, directed with his trademark languid feel, and you begin to realise the full scale of our challenge. Cuarón’s long and fluid style (the opening shot alone is slated to last at least 20 minutes) leaves no cut points to hide behind. In short, this is a hybrid of a fully animated, photo-real feature film with a blockbusting visual effects movie.

Fortunately, having worked with Alfonso before on Harry Potter and Children of Men, we know one another extremely well. Now we are looking for the best talent in the world to help us realise this massive and beautiful film. Over the next few weeks we are interviewing and looking at reels of those in-house who want to join in as well as making trips to the US, Canada and Australasia.

This is CG feature animation meets real world on a large and beautiful scale.