According to Variety, Portman will not only star in, but also produce the movie version of the cult hit alongside producing partner Annette Savitch and Donnie Darko's Richard Kelly. Savitch explained why Portman was drawn to the project:

Natalie and I are longtime passionate fans of Jane Austen's books and this a fresh, fun and thought-provoking way to approach her work... The idea of zombies running rampant in 19th Century England may sound odd, but it lends a modern sense of urgency to a well known love story.

Well, it's hard to get much more urgent than running for your life from an undead brain-eating horde, it's true...

Natalie Portman to slay zombies [Variety]

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Portman will play Jane Foster, the human nurse from the early Thor comics who becomes Thor's first love. Not surprisingly, the 1960s character will be "updated" for the new movie. But more importantly, this probably means we'll be seeing a lot of Thor's human alter ego, Dr. Donald Blake. Up till now, all reports have suggested that Thor would only be in Asgardian thee-saying mode throughout the entire film.

Instead, it sounds like we'll be getting the early comics storyline where Thor's father decides the Thunder God needs to learn some humility, and sends him to Earth to live as a disabled human. Says the Hollywood Reporter:

The story centers on Thor, a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. As punishment, Thor is cast down to Earth and forced to live among humans but once here, he learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth.

Portman joins Chris Hemsworth, who played Daddy George Kirk in the recent Star Trek reboot, as Thor, and Tom Hiddleston as Loki, the god of mischief.

Thor is scheduled to begin filming early next year in time for a May 2011 release date.

Natalie Portman is attached to star in Aronofsy's film Black Swan, about an aging ballerina who's locked into a competitive situation with a rival dancer — who may be real, or a supernatural entity, or a figment of the ballerina's imagination. Black Swan has been in development hell at Universal since early 2007, but now that Aronofsky's scored a big hit with the Wrestler and Portman's on board, studio insiders see it going into full swing as soon as this year. (Also, the script got a needed lick of paint from development exec Mark Heyman.) Apparently, it's a "spine-tingler" along the lines of The Others, the Nicole Kidman movie where you don't know what's real.

As for RoboCop, it's not sounding good. The Hollywood Reporter's sources refer to it as not "ready to go," which means it's probably on the back burner for now. Which, as I said, is good news if you hate remakes. Although I have to admit, I'd way rather see Natalie Portman play a one-woman cyborg SWAT team than see her as a neurotic ballerina. [The Hollywood Reporter]

22 February 1999

Cher M. Henshaw,

OMG, I cannot wait. In just a few short weeks, the culmination of all my hopes, dreams, and fears (ha — not!) will come to pass as Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace hits theaters nationwide.

This shit is gonna be so good.

It doesn't look like any early copies have leaked online — believe me, I would torrent that shit so fast — so I've contented myself with watching the trailer over and over and over again on YouTube. It may be only two minutes long, but that two minutes is enough to validate George Lucas's status as an unsupplantable genius. This movie has it all — the classic slightly-beat-up Star Wars look, the crazy yet believable aliens, the lightsaber fights, and a beautiful girl.

Yup: Natalie Portman, who is like a super-talented actress. She was in The Professional when she was like eight, and I'm pretty sure she won an Oscar for it, because everybody talks about it all the time. I'm not quite sure how Lucas got her, because she's more of a "serious" artist — probably wouldn't want to see her host Saturday Night Live — but she'll surely bring a touch of sophistication to the proceedings. That's a fine thing, because she's obviously an eventual love interest, and one of my favorite things about the original trilogy was how potent but not over-the-top the romance between Han and Leia was. That's what we like. No one wants to see lovers running through a field of fucking daisies.

The whole cast, really, is something to behold. I have to admit, I kinda hoped Lucas would do like he did with the first three movies, and hire total unknowns (although I guess now that there's Wikipedia, no one's really unknown!), but I trust his instincts. I mean, three words for you, M. Henshaw:

Samuel. L. Motherfuckin'. Jackson.

That's right, a little of the old "Royale with cheese" magic is coming to the Galactic Republic. (Speaking of which: Quentin Tarantino — there's another director who's gonna keep the hits coming for decades to come. I'm never taking this Pulp Fiction poster off my wall.) Seriously, though, you could put Sam Jackson in a movie and not even show it to reviewers in advance to promote it — just stick in a scene where he swears a lot — and it would be a runaway success. Between him and this Captain Panaka dude who's in the very first teaser they released, looks like people of color are finally gonna get the respect, and the screen time, they deserve in the Star Wars universe.

And on a totally unrelated note, there's a kick-ass new alien companion to meet! Instead of being a furry dog-bear-thing like Chewbacca, he's more like a dragon. Maybe he breathes fire? (Watch out, Republic — if this guy's not careful, he'll destroy you all by himself! Ha ha!) Anyway, looks like he's got some dialogue, which is cool. Chewie's awesome, but it always seemed like a wasted opportunity that we didn't get to hear the nonhuman take on things more often. I bet this new fella will have a lot of good stuff to say.

Hmmm...went to Taco Bell for lunch and got a little cardboard promotional "coin" from the movie. This one shows Ric Olié, starship captain. Interesting. Looking forward to finding out more about him.

Looking forward to finding out more about the movie's villain, too! Darth Maul — he has a double-bladed lightsaber. It's pretty clear they put a lot of time and effort into his character, so I guess we'll be seeing quite a bit of him. And rumor has it we might just get — hells yeah! — a serving of Boba Fett besides. Well, it might not be Boba himself — it'll probably be a whole army of Mandalorian warriors. That's something we've been waiting to see for a long time now, so I know Lucas won't let us down. He's a master of his craft, and he knows the secret to good storytelling is about a lot more than special effects.

Fuckin' A — he wrote the whole screenplay himself. We are in good hands, M. Henshaw.

Anyway, I don't know what the plot's gonna be like, but I hope it's pure rollicking escapism, because in this post-9/11 world, we've all had our fill of politics. I'm sure I'll be thoroughly familiar with it by the time the movie's been out for a day, though — we're gonna go to the midnight showing and then see it four more times in a row! I confess, when they announced the title, I had some reservations, but the more I think about it, the more I convince myself that The Phantom Menace really does sound pretty cool.

Yeah, this is gonna be so good.

P.S. Saw another trailer the other day for something called Fight Club. How lame does that sound?

Commenter Moff's real name is Josh Wimmer, and he can usually be found at scribblescribblescribble.com/blog.

The kid-friendly feature, which updates the old "How to draw Mickey Mouse"-style tutorials with a new art style, a history lesson about manga and the new aim of drawing a character that looks nothing like the character that you're trying to draw, brings new levels of shame on the Lucasfilm extended brand family with commentary like:

Manga characters seem to almost always have bangs. Even if the character being drawn in real life does not, the Manga style usually incorporates them anyway, along with longer than usual flowing hair.

Drawing Manga-Style Padme Amidala [Star Wars.com]