Cassel, Ryder and Hershey Trio Added to Aronofsky’s ‘Black Swan’

After reminding cinephiles that Rourke and Tomei can play “washed up” but are far from being washed up in their careers, taking a page from Quentin Tarantino’s book, today’s golden scoop (courtesy /film.com) informs us that Darren Aronofsky has added vets Winona Ryder, Barbara Hersey and Vincent Cassel are the supporting cast to the already announced Kunis and Portman duet. Apparently, Ryder will play Beth, Nina’s “sorta friend” who has been the school’s running lead in all the productions, but who is nearing the end of her career. All the dancers are aiming to take her place as Odette, the Swan Queen, in the next big ballet: Swan Lake. Cassel will be playing the ”handsome but sinister Yevna,” the director of the new stage production. And Hershey will play Nina’s mother. Personally I wonder how Cassel feels about playing bad Russian-like figures.

The film blog also mentions that Fox Searchlight are looking to pre-buy the film rights, we should be north of what they paid for The Wrestler. Look for this bit of casting news to be confirmed shortly.

Written by John McLaughlin with a rewrite from Mark Heyman, Black Swan is set in New York City, this centers on a veteran ballerina (Portman) who finds herself locked in a competitive situation with a rival dancer, with the stakes and twists increasing as the dancers approach a big performance. But it’s unclear whether the rival is a supernatural apparition or if the protagonist is simply having delusions.