While we’re sad to hear that Charlize Theron might not be back as Imperator Furiosa for the Mad Max: Fury Road sequel, it looks like fans of her brand of badassery won’t be left completely in the lurch.
According to Deadline, Sony Pictures’ film adaptation of Mark Greaney’s The Gray Man, may be revamped to feature a female protagonist and Theron is in talks to be its leading lady.
On its face, this seems like somewhat of a challenge. First, the whole XY thing is sort of built right into the title: The Gray MAN. Second, the book is about a CIA-trained assassin who evades his enemies while saving the lives of the daughters he didn’t know he had.
Still, the studio believes it can work it out. Because Charlize Theron.
She’s one of the few actresses in Hollywood whose name is enough to allay the fears and doubts of skittish execs. Angelina Jolie is also on that short list and Sony pulled this exact same trick with her in Salt, which was originally set to star some guy named Tom Cruise.
Some other guy named Brad Pitt was originally in talks to star in The Gray Man film, but the deck was reshuffled and the studio is now looking at a new direction.
Mad Max: Fury Road made it abundantly clear that Theron can carry any kind of film she wants, and it will be interesting to see how this changes the script that Joe and Anthony Russo originally drafted.
While fans of the source material might be disappointed to see the novel changed so drastically, we can’t help but be excited at the prospect of Theron putting her boot to a few more backsides.
We’ll keep you up to date with the details as they emerge.
