Red Sparrow is a spy thriller about agents from opposite sides who fall for each other. The female half of the pair has already been taken by Jennifer Lawrence. Now, we have an actor in talks to work alongside her. Lawrence will play a Russian agent tasked with seducing a member of the CIA, which a new report claims may be played by Joel Edgerton.
Red Sparrow is based on a novel of the same name and follows a Russian woman who is trained as a seductress in order to get information from a new to the field CIA agent, that had been tasked with collecting Russian intelligence. However, the two begin an actual relationship, which makes things very dangerous for the both of them. Eventually, the CIA agent is actually able to turn the "sparrow" into a double agent herself. While the film sounds like a cold war spy thriller, it will actually be set in the modern day.
Variety reports that Joel Edgerton is in "early talks" to take the male lead of Red Sparrow, so it's difficult to say how much of a sure thing this is. Jennifer Lawrence has been attached to the project for months, but as the film already has a November 2017 release date, the studio is likely looking to get moving fairly soon.
Joel Edgerton has built a successful and varied career over the years. While he's been acting since the mid-1990's, he likely came to the attention of most filmgoers as the young Owen Lars in the Star Wars prequels. Since then, he's gone on to roles in films like Zero Dark Thirty and Black Mass. He played Ramses for Ridley Scott in Exodus: Gods and Kings, and Tom Buchanan in Baz Luhrman's The Great Gatsby. His next film will be as the man who, along with his wife, challenged state laws against racially integrated marriages in Loving.
Red Sparrow will also bring Jennifer Lawrence back together with her Hunger Games director Frances Lawrence. Originally Darren Aronofsky was looking at directing the film back when the novel was released, but that never came to fruition.
With a pair of strong leads, Red Sparrow is looking like a substantial film. The only issue the film may have is its screenplay. Originally, the screenplay had been written by Eric Warren Singer, the writer of another previous Jennifer Lawrence film American Hustle. However, that script is now seeing a rewritten by Justin Haythe, the man responsible for the Dwayne Johnson vehicle Snitch and Jonny Depp's The Lone Ranger.
What do you think of the pairing of Jennifer Lawrence and Joel Edgerton? Let us know if you think these two will make strong leads for Red Sparrow.
