If you had asked us what Lynne Ramsay might pick as a possible follow up to We Need To Talk About Kevin, a Western would not have been high on the list. But it’s true: the director is aboard Jane Got A Gun, which now boasts Natalie Portman as star and producer.

While the movie is still swirling away in development, the combination of Brian Duffield’s Black List script, Ramsay and Portman is proving a potent pheromone, attracting studios and distributors.

Jane focuses on a woman whose outlaw husband is betrayed and nearly shot to death by his own gang. When the double-crossing posse heads to the couple’s farm to finish the job, the wife takes matters into her own hands, while also reaching out to a former lover for some gun-slinging assistance.

Ramsay also has an untitled sci-fi project based on Moby Dick bubbling on her creative stove, but with Portman involved and all the interest in Jane, you’ve got to figure it has a shot at getting made first, assuming the schedules work out.

Portman is working on Terence Malick’s next two movies, Lawless (which we expect to be renamed long before it reaches cinemas given the other Lawless out this year) and Knight Of Cups. She’s producing a few other movies and, all being well, will return as Jane Foster for Thor 2.