Natalie Portman Joins Forces With Jurassic World: Rebirth Star for an Edge-of-Your-Seat Thriller

If you needed a reminder that Natalie Portman will do basically whatever genre she feels like, here you go—her next big role is apparently a psychological thriller about, of all things, professional cycling. I swear I’m not making this up. She’s teaming up with Jonathan Bailey, who you might know as the latest dinosaur-wrangler from 'Jurassic World: Rebirth' or as the guy who made everyone swoon on 'Bridgerton'.

No release date yet, but they're kicking off filming later this year. You’ve got time to brush up on your Tour de France scandals if you want to prep for this one.

What Is This Movie?

It's called 'Pumping Black', and here’s the basic setup: Picture the obsessive energy of 'Whiplash' mixed with the psychological spiral from 'Black Swan' (which, of course, is the movie that got Portman her Oscar—talk about on-brand). Portman plays Andrea Lathe, a doctor who is apparently very not chill about winning. Jonathan Bailey is Taylor Mace, a professional cyclist hitting the ripe old age of 35—ancient by sports standards, I guess—who realizes his time in the spotlight is fading. Dr. Lathe takes him under her wing, but (because it’s a thriller) this partnership comes with a serious secret that Mace has to keep safe. Cycling is already notorious for weird behind-the-scenes stuff, but this sounds next-level shady.

Who's Pulling the Strings?

• Director: Mimi Cave, who pulled off the surprisingly tense cannibal horror-comedy 'Fresh' (look it up if you want to ruin your lunch).
• Writer: Haley Hope Bartels.
• Producers: A mix of names including Stacey Sher (behind stuff like 'Shiny Penny'), Sébastien Raybaud (Anton, which is also footing the bill), Portman herself, and Sophie Mas from MountainA.

International sales are getting pitched at Cannes (so, business meeting with beaucoup croissants), and yes, CAA is repping the U.S. rights as usual.

Natalie Portman: Not Exactly Slowing Down

Portman’s got a lot cooking. She’s waiting for her new film 'The Gallerist' to actually show up in theaters, after it made its debut at Sundance. Plus, she’ll star in Lena Dunham’s Netflix rom-com 'Good Sex'—with a stacked supporting cast including Mark Ruffalo, Meg Ryan, Rashida Jones, Tucker Pillsbury, and Tramell Tillman.

Just in case you haven’t caught her lately: Her last Apple TV+ gig was 'Fountain of Youth' alongside John Krasinski, and she did the miniseries 'Lady in the Lake.' If animation is more your thing, she even did voice work for 'The Twits', which is a Roald Dahl adaptation that somehow became an animated musical comedy (because sure, why not).

A Quick Word on Bailey

Bailey’s career has definitely been rocketing around: From 'Bridgerton' to the next 'Wicked' movies (including the sequel, 'Wicked: For Good'), then 'Jurassic World: Rebirth', and now this. Not a bad run for a guy who started out in period drama collars.

The comparison being thrown around is 'Whiplash' meets 'Black Swan' but with bikes. So in other words, expect sweat, psychological warfare, and at least one person screaming into a helmet.

We’ll have to wait a bit to see how all this comes together—but if you’ve ever wondered what 'Black Swan' would look like in spandex, set your calendar for when this one drops.