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Alfonso Cuarón Talks About Why Robert Downey Jr. Left Gravity, Watch Full Comic-Con Panel

Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity had a great showing this past weekend at Comic-Con, which is impressive since it was competing for our attention against some pretty MASSIVE films. It's taken almost five years to reach the big screen but the director's sci-fi thriller is almost here and now that the long journey is behind him, Cuarón is starting to open up on why it took the film so long to be completed.

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Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity had a great showing this past weekend at Comic-Con, which is impressive since it was competing for our attention against some pretty MASSIVE films. It’s taken almost five years to reach the big screen but the director’s sci-fi thriller is almost here and now that the long journey is behind him, Cuarón is starting to open up on why it took the film so long to be completed.

Originally, Robert Downey Jr. was set for the role that George Clooney now has. Though details on why RDJ dropped out weren’t too clear at the time (some pointed to scheduling issues), now we’re receiving a more clear cut picture of what went down.

According to Cuarón:

“[It] was very clear that the technology we were going to use… was not the most compatible thing for what Robert is the best at.” Cuarón said (via HuffPo). “That is, he takes one scene and he just starts riffing. And because of the technology that we use, it’s pretty much limited. We have to pre-program the film before shooting.”

You can read the full interview over at HuffPo for more but it’s definitely interesting to hear the real reason behind Downey Jr.’s departure. Cuarón does bring up a good point and though it would have been nice to see RDJ in the role, I’m sure that things will work out perfectly with Clooney in the film instead.

In addition to that nice little tidbit of information, we also have a video of the Comic-Con panel for those who missed it. You can check it out below.

Gravity releases on October 4th, 2013.