Fox Searchlight has released the first image from the sci-fi filmPale Blue Dot,the feature directing debut of TV’s resident mind-benderNoah Hawley. The photo shows offNatalie Portman—who replacedReese Witherspoonin the projectback in January—in character as Lucy Cola, suited up in a NASA uniform.
Not a ton of info is out there about the film just yet, other than A) it revolves around a love triangle between an astronaut freshly returned from outer space and losing her grip on reality, her husband, and a colleague, and B) the cast is absolutely capital-letterStacked. Besides Portman,Jon Hammis onboard as the fellow astronaut who begins the affair,Zazie Beetz—having onehellof a year—will play a trainee who gets involved with this hot space mess, andLegionstarDan Stevenswill re-team with Hawley to play Portman’s husband.
But this is Noah Hawley we’re talking about. Legend has it that the writer/director once tried to tell a story in a linear, straight-forward fashion and the effort nearly killed him. Anyone who has seen a second ofLegion—or even Hawley’sFargoTV adaptation, which isn’t asweirdbut certainly makes a point to be as inventive as possible in its storytelling—knows we’re not in for a straightforward love story among the stars here. There will be trickery. There will be time-jumping. The camera will be upside down for roughly 20% of the film’s runtime.
Either way, we probably don’t have to worry aboutPale Blue Dotdistinguishing itself from fellow upcoming NASA-set storiesFirst Manfrom directorDamien Chazelleand Hulu’sSean Penn-led seriesThe First.
Check out the image below.
Pale Blue Dotwas written byBrian C. BrownandElliott DiGuiseppi, and also starsEllen Burstyn,Colman Domingo, andJeremiah Birkett.
