Creepy Casting: The Black Swan

Posted by sean in Latest News, Movies on November 9th, 2009

There were already a number of reasons to be excited for Darren Aronofsky’s upcoming psychological thriller The Black Swan. From Pi to Requiem for a Dream to The Fountain to The Wrestler, the writer/director has proven with each successive movie that he can tackle wildly varied subject matter, while at the same time bringing a touch of beautiful wierdness that marks his films as absolutely his. And this movie sounds like it’ll be no different: it follows a young ballerina competing against another dancer for the role of the Swan Queen in Swan Lake. As the story moves along, though, it becomes unclear whether the other dancer is, in fact, just a figment of the main character’s imagination. It’s an interesting concept, and the casting so far has me all the more pumped for it.

The two competing dancers had already been cast as Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, which makes this one aggressive, angry sex scene away from the best movie ever made.

Oh, what’s that? The script includes exactly that scene? I’m sold already. But let’s hear the rest of the casting news, just to flesh it out.

According to /film, Winona Ryder has been cast as the aging dancer who the girls are competing to replace. Meanwhile, Barbara Hershey will play Portman’s mother, and Vincent Cassel will portray the ballet’s handsome but pretty rape-y director.

The script review linked above describes Black Swan as “an intriguing story with a quiet, slow burn.” We’re lulled into a stupor by the banality of the characters’ day-to-day lives, then slapped in the face by something intense or disturbing or otherwise extraordinary. It sounds very artful and deliberate, and I trust Aranofsky enough, as a writer and a director, to look forward to it.

Oh, and did I mention Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman have sex? I am so there.