Around the turn of this century, Darren Aronofsky wanted to make a film about ballet, inspired by his sister's dance training. He also became interested in the idea of doppelgängers after reading Dostoevsky. Double. I already think that Natalie Portman would have been the ideal leading actress, they were having coffee in New York in 2000, when she had just performed her first role as Padmé Amidala in Star Wars: Episode I and Harvard student.
“She says I had the whole movie in my head, which is a complete lie,” Aronofsky. told Collider in 2010, to which Portman insisted: “No, what he described to me was so close.”
The director continued: “So we talked about it a little bit and I started developing it, but it was a really difficult film because getting into the ballet world was extremely difficult. Most of the time, when you make a movie and say, “Hey, I want to make a movie about your world,” all the doors open and you can do whatever you want and see whatever you want. The ballet world wasn't really interested in us hanging out at all, so it took a long time to gather information to put everything together.”
He was involved in a Universal script about a murder that took place in the theater world called Understudywrote Andres Heinzwho Aronofsky hoped might be flexible enough to make his ballet dreams come true. When several drafts didn't pan out, he took over production on his own and eventually received distribution from Fox Searchlight.
Meanwhile he saw Swan Lake. “When I saw the story of the black swan and the white swan, I decided to throw everything out and combine all the characters and myths with Swan Lake“- said the director Los Angeles Times. “The credits should really say: “Co-authored with Tchaikovsky.”
Luckily, Portman was still on board. Aronofsky told Collider: “Over the years, Natalie said, 'I'm getting too old to play a dancer. You better hurry up.” I said, “Natalie, you look great.” Everything will be fine. And then, about a year after filming, or maybe a little earlier, I finally wrote the script. That's how it all started.”
