Charlize Theron probably won’t star in any future Mad Max films, but she appears to be setting up an action franchise for herself. Deadline reports that Theron will produce and likely lead the film adaptation of Mark Greaney’s The Gray Man. The script comes from Joe and Anthony Russo, who were once attached to direct but have moved on to helming multiple Marvel films. Theron’s Denver and Delilah label will produce the film along with Joe Roth (Maleficent, Knight And Day), who told Variety last year that he felt The Gray Man could become the next Jason Bourne.
The project had been languishing at Sony Pictures for a while; back in 2011, Brad Pitt was attached to play the titular character, with James Gray (The Immigrant) directing. Theron is in talks to replace Pitt as Court Gentry a.k.a The Gray Man, a former CIA operative-turned-shadowy assassin. Greaney, who’s been steering the Tom Clancy universe since Clancy’s death, has written four books about Gentry, and Sony has already optioned them for future films. Gentry isn’t nearly as well-known a character as Clancy’s Jack Ryan, so we are cautiously optimistic about future audiences’ ability to handle the gender switch.