Well we wondered who would be getting the Connie Nielsen role in the remake of the 2004 Danish movie BROTHERS as it was the last lead role in the Jim Sheridan’s remake to be cast after Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire. The answer is Natalie Portman, according to this article in Variety.

The war drama produced by Relativity Media centers on a guy (Maguire) who is sent out to fight in Afghanistan whilst his black-sheep brother (Gyllenhaal) looks after his wife (Portman) and child. I haven’t seen the original myself but I’m guessing Gyllenhaal will look after Portman a little too well.

Shooting will begin in November from a David Benioff script. Let’s hope he got the original more than he got the character of WOLVERINE anyway.

Interesting situation here. You’ve got three thesps who could probably still play a teenage role (and I guess Portman & Maguire still do) despite what their real age is, although Gyllenhaal might be a little beyond that now. All three have been around a while now but they still kinda have fresh faces, the Leonardo DiCaprio look from THE BEACH is still with them, they haven’t quite reached THE AVIATOR yet.

Big adult subject matter here, and they have will have no-one else to bounce off from. I’m fascinated by this project and it’s gonna be a real tester for the three involved.