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Black Swan is an upcoming American psychological thriller film directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis. The film is currently in production in New York City.

Premise

Nina (Portman) and Lilly (Kunis) are rival ballet dancers in New York City, and Nina wins the lead in the ballet Swan Lake. Things fall apart around Nina, and she begins a downward spiral mentally.^[1]

Cast

• Natalie Portman as Nina. Portman explained her reason for being part of Black Swan, "I'm trying to find roles that demand more adulthood from me because you can get stuck in a very awful cute cycle as a woman in film, especially being such a small person."^[2]
• Mila Kunis as Lilly. Kunis contrasted Lilly with Nina, "My character is very loose... She's not as technically good as Natalie's character, but she has more passion, naturally. That's what Natalie's character lacks. So it's a battle and the ying and yang."^[1]
• Kristina Anapau as Galina^[3]
• Winona Ryder as Beth, Nina's friend^[4]
• Vincent Cassel as Yevna, director of a new stage production^[4]
• Barbara Hershey as Nina's mother^[4]
• Sebastian Stan^[5]
• Janet Montgomery as Madeline, a co-dancer jealous of Nina's talent^[6]

Production

In 2007, the studio Universal Pictures acquired the project Black Swan with Darren Aronofsky attached to direct and John McLaughlin to write.^{[nb 1]} The director and the writer proposed a detailed outline of the film to Universal after the release of Aronofsky's The Fountain, and the studio chose to fast-track Black Swan.^[8] In June 2009, the studio placed the project in turnaround, generating attention from other studios and specialty divisions, particularly with actor Natalie Portman attached to star.^[9] Black Swan began development under Protozoa Pictures and Overnight Productions, the latter financing the film. In July 2009, actor Mila Kunis was cast in a lead role as a rival dancer to Portman's character.^[10] Georgina Parkinson, a ballet mistress from the American Ballet Theatre, coached Portman and Kunis in ballet.^[11] In November 2009, Fox Searchlight Pictures became the co-financier and distributor for Black Swan. The film was given a production budget of $10-12 million, and principal photography began in New York City toward the end of 2009.^[7]

Clint Mansell, who composed the score for Aronofsky's past feature films, reprises his role for Black Swan. Mansell is building the score using elements from Swan Lake.^[12]

Notes

References

External links

• Black Swan at the Internet Movie Database