According to Deadline.com, Warner Bros has either tested or made approaches to a bevy of A-list actresses, including Abbie Cornish, for the female leading role in Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity. The studio needs an actress who can hold the screen and draw an audience to an $80 million film. Much like Tom Hanks’ role in Cast Away, the Gravity heroine is the only person onscreen for a large part of the movie.

Angelina Jolie has been the frontrunner for the role but she has passed on it, and hence put Warner Bros in a bind. Besides Abbie, the studio is also interested in Sandra Bullock, Natalie Portman, Naomi Watts, Marion Cotillard, Carey Mulligan, Scarlett Johansson, Sienna Miller, Rebecca Hall, Olivia Wilde and Blake Lively.

Scripted by Cuaron and his son Jonas, Gravity is set on a remote space station. While a team leader (Robert Downey Jr.) and a female colleague are traveling outside, the other team members get wiped out by a debris field from an exploding satellite. The film’s central focus is the heroine’s desperate attempt to return home to her child. The intention is to shoot the film next year after Downey completes Sherlock Holmes 2.

Personally, I think this sounds like an interesting and an ambitious project and it would be a truly fantastic opportunity if Abbie did end up getting cast. I think Abbie is a tremendious talent and I have no doubt at all whether or not she could carry a film. However, I suppose it is doubtful that she will end up playing the part since the studio is looking for an actress as famous as Jolie for the $80 million blockbuster movie. At least they do seem to be interested in Abbie since they have tested her so keep your fingers crossed!

Warner Bros. Pictures has started airing these three TV spots for Zack Snyder’s Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, opening in 3D, 2D and IMAX 3D theaters on September 24th. The movie is voiced by Emily Barclay, Abbie Cornish, Emilie de Ravin, Ryan Kwanten, Jay Laga’aia, Miriam Margolyes, Helen Mirren, Sam Neill, Richard Roxburgh, Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess, Hugo Weaving and David Wenham.

Check out the TV spots at ComingSoon.net.

Taylor Schilling has grabbed a female lead role opposite Zac Efron in The Lucky One, THR says. To nab the highly sought role, she has beaten out other high profile actresses, including as Abbie Cornish and Katie Cassidy, who were also in the running.

The film, based on Nicholas Sparks’ novel of the same title, follows Efron’s character of a soldier who has survived three tours of duty in Iraq and attributes his good luck to a photograph he carried of a woman, portrayed by Schilling, whom he doesn’t even know. When he returns to the States, he will seek out the girl and later they develop a relationship.

Finally – 2000+ DVD screencaptures have been added of Abbie Cornish’s spellbinding performance as Fanny Brawne in Jane Campion’s Bright Star. The film, quite simply, is stunning and Abbie’s performance perhaps the strongest of her career to date. I’ll let the images speak for themself – hope you like them!

GALLERY LINKS:
- Bright Star: DVD Screencaptures

Pictures from the set of W.E. from yesterday have been added. Miss Cornish looks fabulous in all black! In the film, Abbie plays the role of Wally Winthrop, a young married New Yorker who is obsessed with the story of King Edward VIII.

Also, thanks to Ann, we have replaced the previous set pictures from back in July with untagged versions.

GALLERY LINKS:
- W.E.: On the Set – August 1, 2010