Charlize Theron is in talks for a spy-turned-assassin role that originally had another giant star attached to it.
Deadline reports that Theron is circling Sony Pictures’ The Gray Man, a film which has been in the works for some time.
A film that was once set to star Brad Pitt. That news broke in 2011, so this project has been stalled for a while.
The Gray Man is an adaptation of a 2009 novel by Mark Greaney – his first. Greaney is known as a former collaborator of Tom Clancy. He worked with Clancy on his last three books and also published three novel continuations of Clancy’s character Jack Ryan in 2014-2015.
If Theron takes the lead, the writers would have to switch things up a bit. The original lead in The Gray Man is male. As Deadline points out, “the thriller focuses on an expert CIA op-turned-assassin who is forced to evade adversaries as he saves the lives of daughters he didn’t know he had.”
Charlize Theron to take Brad Pitt part in #TheGrayMan http://t.co/IZ9ABX49GJ #MovieNews pic.twitter.com/p9MB74KxVK
— IMDb (@IMDb) October 13, 2015
So it will involve at least a little bit of tweaking.
But Theron is clearly up for the challenge of playing a spy/assassin.
Charlize Theron wouldn’t be the only woman to play a role originally written for a man in an upcoming film. Sandra Bullock’s role in the upcoming Our Brand Is Crisis was originally written for George Clooney.
And speaking of Theron and badass roles, there’s a chance that she won’t be appearing in the Mad Max sequel.