Robert Downey Jr. in talks for Gravity

A few weeks ago we heard that Angelina Jolie was floating around Alfonso Cuaron’s sci-fi thriller Gravity after dropping out of Wanted 2, however the actress has since decided space ain’t her thing. Now comes word from Deadline that Robert Downey Jr. is in talks to star in the film which is now being produced by Warner Bros after Universal dropped the project following Jolie’s departure.

Downey’s recent success with Sherlock Holmes means Warner Bros. are happy to put him in anything, and this space movie gives Downey something to do over the summer before shooting begins on Sherlock Holmes 2.

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.

The script had been developed originally at Universal with the intention of having Angelina Jolie play the female role. Much of the film is devoted to her struggle to get back to Earth and her daughter.

If Downey joins they may re-write the script slightly to give him the daughter angle, or they may get another well known actress onboard and keep the story the same. We rarely get a sci-fi film carried by a female, and Jolie is probably the only actress who could have carried the film herself. Downey’s joining will make it more gender-neutral, and less of an experiment to see whether a female can lead a sci-fi film, like Sigourney Weaver did in the Alien days.