Rachel Weisz is Jackie Kennedy for Aronofsky

Published by Jeff Leins on April 14, 2010

Rachel Weisz is playing Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in the biopic Jackie for filmmaker Darren Aronofsky.  The Wrestler director will also produce.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the hot spec script by Noah Oppenheim chronicles the four days between President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and her burial at Arlington National Cemetary in 1963, “showing the beloved Jackie at both her most vulnerable and her most graceful.”  Jackie died in 1994 at the age of 64.

The Oscar winner is an extremely talented actress and certainly looks the part, but may face criticism as a British-born woman playing an iconic American figure.  In addition, Weisz is 40 and Kennedy was 34 when her husband was shot, though that shouldn’t make much of a difference.

Aronofsky is wrapping up work on Black Swan, a trippy ballet drama starring Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis.  His next will likely be the period thriller Serena with Angelina Jolie.  His long-delayed RoboCop reboot probably isn’t happening.  Meanwhile, Weisz is scheduled to shoot Dream House alongside Daniel Craig, and has been rumored as the villain in the 23rd James Bond movie.  She has been romantically involved with Aronofsky since 2002 and worked together on 2006’s The Fountain.  They have a 3-year-old son together.