Cuarón’s “Gravity” to Open the 70th Annual Venice Film Festival

Alfonso Cuarón latest film project is headed to Italy…

The 51-year-old Mexican filmmaker’s  3D deep space thriller Gravity will open the 70th Venice Film Festival in an out of competition berth.

Gravity

The Warner Bros. film, starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, will debut on the Lido on August 28.

Bullock plays a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission alongside a veteran astronaut played by Clooney. Disaster strikes during a seemingly routine spacewalk, leaving the two completely alone — tethered to one another and spiraling into the blackness.

Gravity is the first high-profile world premiere that Venice has announced so far.

Cuarón’s first film in Venice was 2001′s Y tu mamá también which won the Golden Osella for Best Screenplay as well as the Marcello Mastroianni Award for stars Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna.

In 2006, the director’s Children Of Men won the Best Cinematography Golden Osella for Emmanuel Lubezki, who is also the director of photography on Gravity.

The Venice Film Festival runs this year from August 28-September 7.

Cuarón Releases First Trailer for “Gravity,” Starring Sandra Bullock

Alfonso Cuarón is back with what appears to be another award-worthy film…

After debuting some of the first footage from his new film, the 51-year-old Mexican filmmaker has released the first trailer for the sci-fi drama Gravity, which stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.

Alfonso Cuaron

The trailer not only that features a breathtaking view of outer space, it shows a nerve-racking experience undergone by Bullock, whose character Dr. Ryan Stone gets into a panic during her first shuttle mission.

The video follows Stone doing a leisure spacewalk in the company of a veteran astronaut when flying debris suddenly hits their craft. “I can’t breathe! What do I do?” Stone says. Completely lost in outer space, she later desperately says, “Anybody, please call me.”

The space-set film centers on Stone, a brilliant medical engineer who is on her first shuttle mission. Accompanied by astronaut Matt Kowalsky, the seemingly routine spacewalk turns into a disaster as their shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalsky completely alone. The deafening silence tells them they’ve lost any link to Earth and any chance for rescue.

The sci-fi film marks the return of Cuarón, who has not helmed a pic since 2006’s Oscar-nominated Children of Men. Taking triple duty in the project, the Mexican filmmaker directs, pens the script with his son Jonas, and co-produces alongside Harry Potter producer David Heyman.

Gravity is set to hit theaters in the U.S. on October 4.

Cuarón to Direct First American Television Project for NBC…

Alfonso Cuarón is set to make his first foray into American television…

The 50-year-old Mexican filmmaker has partnered with J.J. Abrams for a high-concept drama, which has landed at NBC with a pilot production commitment.

Alfonso Cuaron

Cuarón, a three-time Oscar nominee, will direct the pilot, which he’ll co-write with Home of the Brave’s Mark Friedman. The project centers on a girl who possesses great powers, which will come to fruition in seven years, and the man who gets released from prison to protect her from those trying to hunt her down.

Warner Bros. Television and Abrams’ studio-based Bad Robot are producing the untitled project, with Abrams, Cuarón, Friedman and Bryan Burk executive producing.

Cuarón received Academy Award nominations for writing Y tu mamá también and Children of Men, both of which he directed as well. He also received a nod for editing Children of Men. He also helmed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.