Natalie Portman has just been tapped to star in the musical Vox Lux. The upcoming movie will also feature original songs by Sia.

Portman will play the role of Celeste in Brady Corbet's upcoming project. Initially, Rooney Mara was supposed to play the lead in Vox Lux, but the actress backed out of the film. Vox Lux will follow the life of a rising pop star named Celeste.

Vox Lux Production And Cast Details

Bold Films and Andrew Lauren Productions will fund the musical. Bold Films took some time to recast the role of Celeste after Rooney's exit due to its company-wide restructuring. The production company also struggled financially after the unsuccessful release of Jake Gyllenhaal film Stronger.

The company managed to pick up its momentum again with the success of Keira Knightley's historical drama titled Collette. The film was released at the Sundance Film Festival recently.

Production for Vox Lux will kick off on Feb. 1 in New York City. Jude Law has also been cast in the project. It will be produced by Andrew Lauren, Michel Litvak, Svetlana Metkina, D.J. Gugenheim, David Hinojosa, Gary Michael Walters, and more. Litvak, the chairman of Bold Films, released a statement following Portman's casting.

"We are thrilled to welcome such a stellar actress as Natalie Portman to the cast," said Litvak.

Natalie Portman Plays Lena In Alex Garland's Film

Other than the upcoming musical, Portman is also in talks to star in Pale Blue Dot, an astronaut drama that will be directed by Noah Hawley, the one who helmed Fargo and Legion. Portman also stars in Annihilation, a sci-fi thriller directed by Alex Garland for Paramount and Skydance.

In Annihilation, Portman plays the role of Lena, a biologist and former soldier who joins a mission to uncover what really happened to her husband inside Area X. The film is slated to hit theaters on Feb. 23. Prior to its release, Garland said that it is nothing like Ex Machina even though the two are being compared to each other.

"Ex Machina was very zoned in and specific. It had a very small cast. It's ineffectively one location. There were four people, and often each scene included only pairs. In Annihilation, you often have five people in a scene at once, so it required a lot more coverage. Everything is more stretched out in Annihilation, from the cast to the VFX," explained Garland.

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