Sure, the most recent Bourne movie was a dip in quality, and some other recent spy-game offerings, like Red Sparrow, weren’t as fun as we wanted them to be. But maybe there’s a simple solution staring us in the face: Get Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Marion Cotillard, and Penelope Cruz to be your kickass spies.
That seems to be the strategy favored by 355, a new film project currently seeking a distribution deal at Cannes. Variety reports the movie will feature the aforementioned actors as “a troupe of spies in the tradition of The Bourne Identity or Mission: Impossible franchises.” Longtime writer-producer Simon Kinberg is tapped to direct, as he finishes post-production on his directorial debut X-Men: Dark Phoenix. (Just based on his mutant-centric track record, that film could go either way, as Kinberg is responsible for writing both the excellent Days Of Future Past and the execrable The Last Stand, though we all know who probably deserves the blame for the latter.)
All four actors are currently on the Croisette to pitch studios on acquisition of the film, budgeted at $75 million. And apparently a bidding war has broken out, with an offer of $25 million (from Global Road Entertainment) already on the table for North American distribution rights alone. Amazon Studios has reportedly also put in a bid, with other studios weighing their options as they wonder just how cool this movie could potentially be. Based solely on the above photo, we’re going with “super-cool,” though obviously we retain the right to pretend we never said that in the event of a Movie 43-level disaster.