Last week, we reported the troubling news that Angelina Jolie had passed on the lead role in Alfonso Cuaron’s sci-fi film Gravity and that the lack of a bankable lead-actress threw the entire project’s future into existence.  Now, Risky Business is reporting the exciting news that Natalie Portman has been offered the lead.  While Deadline reported that Portman was one of the actresses who tested/was approached for the role, Risky says that Portman’s critically-acclaimed performance in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan got her a green light from Warner Bros. and that she was offered the role without having to screen test for it.  Portman is expected to read the latest version of the script this week and then make her decision.  Hopefully, she says “Yes.”

Hit the jump to learn more about Gravity.  Black Swan has received rave reviews at the Telluride and Venice Film Festivals.  It’s also set to play at the Toronto International Film Festival, which runs from September 9 – 19^th.  It opens on December 1^st.

Gravity centers on “a female astronaut stranded on a space station after satellite debris slams into it and wipes out the rest of the crew.”  Robert Downey Jr. is already attached as the male lead, but his role is minimal.  The majority of the film focuses on the female astronaut and her struggle to survive a solitary ordeal.  Filming is slated to begin at the end of January.