14 DAY TRIAL // Charlize Theron and her Imperator Furiosa was the big surprise of this year’s best action movie, as some critics have called it, “Mad Max: Fury Road.” She’s always been an excellent “get” for any film, but this role helped her cement her status as an action movie star.
It seems that she’s interested in working in this direction more. Deadline reports that she’s currently in negotiations for a role that was initially meant for Brad Pitt, that of a CIA agent turned assassin who kills his way through Europe, on a personal mission.
The film is called “The Gray Man” and is based on a novel by Mark Greaney. James Gray will direct, off a script by Joe and Anthony Russo.
Deadline says that the lead is “forced to evade adversaries as he saves the lives of daughters he didn’t know he had,” which means Theron’s casting will bring drastic alterations to the plot. Then again, it’s not like it hasn’t been done before, albeit rarely.
Angelina Jolie played a double spy in “Salt,” a role that was offered to Tom Cruise and he turned down. The script was rewritten and Jolie became the hottest female action movie star of that moment thanks to the film.
Sandra Bullock also got a studio to do the gender switch on an upcoming project, with “Our Brand Is Crisis.” The role was written for a man but she fell in love with the script and pushed until she got it.
As Deadline puts it, if Charlize lands this role, she will be “in rare territory.”