Natalie Portman Attached To Defend Her Homestead In ‘Jane Got A Gun,’ A Western Directed By Lynne Ramsay
Kelly Reichardt (Meek’s Cutoff) isn’t going to have the market cornered when it comes to new female-led Westerns. Scottish directorLynne Ramsay(We Need to Talk About Kevin,Ratcatcher) is now attached to direct a film calledJane Got a Gun. And now the project hasNatalie Portmanattached to star and produce.
THRreports that the project is coming together now at Cannes, with a bidding war of sorts erupting as financiers and studios investigate the possibility of funding the film.Jane Got a Gunis written byBrian Duffield, and hit the2011 Black List of popular unproduced screenplays. The story follows “a woman whose outlaw husband returns home barely alive and riddled with bullet wounds. She is forced to reach out to an ex-lover and ask if he will help defend her farm when her husband’s gang eventually tracks him down to finish the job.”
This news comes just asWe Need to Talk About Kevinis about to hit DVD and Blu-ray — Ramsay’s most recent film arrives on disc on May 29.
I’m excited at the prospect of Ramsay making a Western. She’s got a strong visual voice in addition to a great command of tone and character. I think she could do wonderful things, visually, with a story set in the established imagery of the west, and possibly give us a new way to look at the storied old genre.
Portman, meanwhile, is getting back to work after having a child. Shewas in early talksfor Ridley Scott’sThe Counselor, but that role seems to have gone toPenelope Cruz. She is working on Terrence Malick’stwo new films, however, and hasThor 2coming up, likely at the end of the year.
