Could Alfonso Cuarón’s ‘Gravity’ Lose Robert Downey, Jr.?
Warning: this is a half-speculative story that could easily be worked out within by the end of the week, so it could amount to nothing. But it’s one more piece of the difficult mosaic that has been the development process forGravity, the space-bound thriller fromAlfonso Cuarón. After a long search, the film finally found a lead inSandra Bullock. And it has boasted, almost since day one, one of the strongest possible supporting actors:Robert Downey, Jr.But now there’s a possibility that scheduling will knock Mr. Downey out the film’s orbit.
Mike Fleming atDeadlinesays he’s hearing that Mr. Downey will have to pull out of the film thanks to scheduling issues, and while he doesn’t say anything specific, that meansSherlock Holmes 2. Here’s the good news: bothSherlockandGravityare Warner Bros. films, and the studio has every interest in working things out so that the actor can appear in both movies. Indeed, WB is telling Deadline that there really isn’t any problem, and that things will be sorted out.
The problem here is that Downey is shootingSherlock Holmes 2now, then planned to break from that and do his small part inGravity, and then return toSherlock. Deadline isn’t specific about what the schedule roadblock is, but chances are it has to do with unforeseen schedule changes withSherlock.
The site also mentionsThe AvengersandIron Man 3. Difficult to imagine that those are going to be pressing concerns before early next year, however — they’re indicative of how tightly packed his schedule is, more than anything else. There’s no wiggle room here, so if location delays or other issues wreak havoc withSherlock’s schedule, then hisGravitydays might have to be pushed, and eventually they’re going to but up againstThe Avengers, which is set to go in February. If that happens, thenGravitywill lose out. But hopefully WB can wiggle things around so that eventuality doesn’t come to pass.
