When I first heard about Alfonso Cuarón's film Gravity it really caught my interest, mainly because it seemed to promise Angelina Jolie in the one and only lead role. It sounded like it could be an emotionally taxing role for her, something that would really play on her considerable acting talents.

Then we heard a rumour that she had passed on the role and that Robert Downey Jr. was taking on her role, that the lead had been rewritten as a male, and that there were now a number of characters involved. If it were true then it sounded like it had totally changed.

According to Downey it was true.

Speaking at a press conference for Iron Man 2 (Filmstalker review), Robert Downey Jr. revealed that he was involved in the film and that he and the director were talking about the script.

The comments come through Moviehole and The Playlist, and it carries a little bit of a plot update with it.

“I’m working with Alfonso Cuarón on this 3D space movie about people trying to fix the Hubble telescope...It’s been really inspiring talking to Cuarón...”

The updated plot reveals that perhaps Angelina Jolie was not up for a single lead role, that maybe there were a number of roles from the beginning, or that the film was rewritten and the single female lead role was absorbed into the cast. I wonder if we'll ever really know.

What we have now is that the female role is the medical engineer, and the role Downey is set to take is that of a talkative and seemingly boisterous - think Tony Stark in Iron Man 2 (Filmstalker review) – veteran astronaut who are told to abandon their mission and return to Earth immediately. The reason? The Russians seem to have started an attack and managed to cause all the satellites in orbit to come crashing to Earth.

The astronauts have to race back to Earth as quickly as they can, and that's where the main focus of the story is. I would presume from the story that there's no contact with Earth once the satellites are down, keeping them unsure of the fate of everyone on Earth.

Sounds an interesting project, but I don't fancy the idea of Tony Stark in space. I really liked the idea of the single person, claustrophobic film that was one person, their thoughts, and an empty spaceship all the way home to Earth.