Jolie says no to space, yes to playing the Lady Macbeth of North Carolina

It’s all change at rumour station. On Friday, we faithfully reported on the news-go-round which was then suggesting that the defection of Angelina Jolie from Wanted 2 to Alfonso Cuaron’s new space thriller Gravity had killed the follow-up to Bekmambetov’s loom assassin madness. Now we find that Wanted 2 is on, Gravity is a mystery, and Jolie is lining up a completely different project.

The Hollywood Reporter has it that Jolie is in talks to star in a Darren Aronofsky period film, Serena. An adaptation of the Ron Rash novel set in 1928 in which Jolie will play the title character, a newlywed woman who goes with her husband George Pemberton to the wilds of North Carolina to start a timber empire. Serena turns out to be well equipped for the wilderness life and before long has mastered her environment and is pushing her husband to commit some ruthless acts in order to improve their fortune. But things get out of control when she miscarries her first baby and decides to kill the child George had out of wedlock before he met her.

This project is still in its very early stages. The screenplay was penned by Christopher Kyle (who co-wrote Kathryn Bigelow films The Weight of Water and K19: The Widowmaker, plus the ill-fated Alexander, which also starred Jolie). The package is being pitched around to raise funds but after The Wrestler, we know that if Aronofsky decides to do a film, he’s happy to go outside of the studio system to raise cash and retain control - and still scoop up a bunch of awards. Jolie channeling her inner psychopath under the direction of Aronofsky could be a pretty good thing. Imagine if Aronofsky does for her what he did for Mickey Rourke – make a no-holds-barred character piece that gives her space to act, not just spout one-liners or sexily gun people down (not that Rourke ever did that).

According to Universal insiders, Wanted 2 is still on – with or without Jolie. The sequel could go one of two ways: either they’ll up the negotiations with Jolie’s talent management and agree to a crazy fee and flexible shooting, or they’ll start the hunt for a starlet who can work a knuckleduster.

And there’ almost no word on what’s the happen to Cuarón’s Gravity now it’s minus Ms Jolie. We know it’s an original space thriller, written by Cuarón and his son – and that’s that.

Here’s our Friday article.