Best Actress 2013: Scarlett Johansson, Under the Skin

Scarlett Johansson wrapped herself in fur and popped on a shoulder-length black wig to play an alien in Jonathan Glazer's Under the Skin.  Glazer's motion picture debut was Sexy Beast and this will be his followup to Birth starring Nicole Kidman in 2004.  Walter Campbell adapted Michel Faber's novel about a creature from another planet who lures humans to their death to feed her extraterrestrial brethren.   Glazer's crew is pretty new and/or unrecognized.  The project sounds more pensive and smaller scale ala Never Let Me Go, than full-fledged science fiction, with a satirical twist.  It has been a while since Johansson carried a film.  After The Nanny Diaries tanked, it was her Natasha Romanoff that helped keep her commercial profile up, and now she finds herself in a lead role in an arty little project that may have a big payoff, or at least help her continue to take on such projects.  UK Film Council cofinanced the film's Scottish shoot.

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