Female-fronted action pictures are becoming the Hollywood dish du jour, and it seems like there’s a fresh piece of casting news about a gender-swapped reboot or a lady mercenary movie every week.
So how and when will you be able to sate your unremitting appetite for badass ladies on the big screen? Vulture has mapped out all of the female-led action films either in development, in production, or in the can and on their way to a theater near you. Get ready for a slew of assassins looking for vengeance, a few precocious kids solving mysteries, a sampling of superheroes, and hopefully more high-quality wigs than we’re capable of counting.
In Development
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Status: Quickly in development. Jessica Chastain brought this one to Simon Kinberg when they were on the set of X-Men: Dark Phoenix, and he liked the idea so much he agreed to direct and help her develop it. Chastain then called up Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Lupita Nyong’o, and Fan Bingbing, and they all agreed to join the cast and travel to Cannes to pitch the movie to studio buyers, where it was promptly snatched up for a lot of money.Description: A group of spies from agencies around the world (Chastain & Co.) will come together to defeat a “global organization” that’s looking to acquire a very big and bad weapon.
A Patriot
Status: In development, with Eva Green set to star, joined by Kathy Bates and Ed Skrein. Dan Pringle will direct a script he co-wrote with Toby Rushton.Description: Green stars as a Border Corp captain in a future authoritarian state that has walled itself away from a world ravaged by climate chaos and resource wars. Her job is to help ensure the purity of the populace, until a troubling discovery makes her doubt the regime she has pledged her loyalty to.
The Aeronauts
Status: In preproduction, but with stars Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones in place with Amazon.Description: Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones star as a researcher and pilot team that goes on a science mission in a hot-air balloon. They ascend higher than anyone ever has, and have to fight for survival in the thinning atmosphere. (Of course a Jones/Redmayne action-thriller would be set in a hot-air balloon in the mid-1800s.)
Bad Monkeys
Status: The movie was announced two years ago and is still classified as in development, but no fresh news has been provided for a while.Description: Margot Robbie is set to star in and produce Monkeys through her company, Lucky Chap. It’s based on the novel of the same name by Matt Ruff; Robbie would play Jane Charlotte, a woman arrested for murder who gets sent to a psych ward after saying that she fights for a group called the Department for the Final Disposition of Irredeemable Persons. She proceeds to go mad — or is she the only sane one? Kind of sounds like an alternate origin story for Harley Quinn.
In Production
Peppermint
Status: The film was in production earlier this year. It’s expected to debut in 2018, but does not yet have a release date.Description: Jennifer Garner stars in this action-thriller that’s been described as John Wick, but with a lady. It focuses on a woman (Garner) who devotes herself to becoming a killing machine so she can avenge the drive-by shooting deaths of her husband and daughter. Naturally, it’s directed by Pierre Morel, of Taken fame.
Bumblebee
Status: Currently filming, and will hit theaters on December 21.Description: This Transformers spinoff gives us a look at Bumblebee’s life in the 1980s, and it stars Hailee Steinfeld as his faithful owner.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix
Status: Designated as being in postproduction, and has a theatrical release date of November 2.Description: Sophie Turner stars as young Jean Grey in this origin story of her evil alternate persona the Dark Phoenix, with previous X-Men franchise anchors Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, and James McAvoy reprising their mutant roles.
(Excerpt) Read More at: Vulture.com
