Angelina Jolie's Spy Movie Will Have Attitude



A couple of months ago we told you that Angelina Jolie was replacing Tom Cruise in the spy thriller Edwin A. Salt. I jokingly…jokingly now…said it would be funny if they renamed the character Edwina. Well, it wasn’t so funny to the producers, who went ahead and renamed the main character Edwina A. Salt, according to the MTV Movies Blog.

Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura also told MTV that the movie would start filming in February and would be out late next year (or maybe early 2010.) In a surprising change, the producer of the movie thinks it’s going to be great! Bonaventura said, “It’s going to be a very exciting film…It’s a big spy movie on a big canvas with a lot of attitude.” Those are always better than the small spy movies on the small canvas with no attitude. Oh wait, no they aren’t.

Jolie was already in a spy movie called Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which was kinda crappy. If you are worried that this movie will suck like that one did, fear not. According to Bonaventura, director Phillip Noyce is planning on making a good movie instead. He notes, “This film is much more serious and about real jeopardy. How are we going to get out of this? Who is who? And all the great things you love in an intense spy movie. This has it, and a lot more attitude on top of it.” I wonder if this movie will have any attitude.

Edwin A. Salt Retitled As Erika



Though there were rumors that she might be leaving the project, it looks like Angelina Jolie is still attached to Edwin A. Salt. Only according to Production Weekly, the movie’s name has changed to fit the female gender of its lead. Now they’re calling it Erika Salt.

You may remember that Jolie was brought in to replace Tom Cruise, who was originally supposed to play the titular Mr. Salt. Since they’ve now changed the title to fit Angelina’s curvaceous figure, it’s reasonable to assume she’s there to stay.

Erika Salt is a spy movie. Jolie will play a CIA officer fingered as a Russian sleeper agent out to assassinate the president. She escapes capture and fights to reunite with her family and prove she’s not a traitor.

Helgeland on board Noyce's Salt



Kurt Wimmer's script for "Salt" (previously titled "Edwin A. Salt" and at that stage set to star Tom Cruise) is apparently pretty darn good. The Phil Noyce-helmed flick, which tells of a CIA officer who is fingered as a Russian sleeper spy, is set to encompass some terrific action, great spades of suspense and a terrifically meaty role for the foxy lead. But silver's not good enough for Sony, so they're going for Gold.

Word around the slightly-cold streets of Hollywood today is that Oscar Winning screenwriter (and director) Brian Helgeland has been hired by Sony to do a quick pass thru on the script, punching up the dialogue, before its March 2nd start date.

Sony want this to be one of their key releases of the next twelve months - if only because they're hoping this first chapter will spin-off into a franchise (with Ms Jolie back as Evelyn Salt).

Helgeland's somewhat of a saving grace in Hollywood. He's been hired to rewrite such scripts as "The Bourne Supremacy" and "Assassins" and the films have been all the more better for it. The man knows character - and you only have to check out one of his scripts (say this one here, for "L.A Confidential") to see how crafty he is at writing converse.

Helgeland, of course, wrote (and consequently won an Oscar for) "L.A Confidential", "Payback", "Mystic River" and the upcoming "Nottingham". This'll be his first collaboration with director Noyce ("Patriot Games", "Rabbit Proof Fence").

Liev Schreiber eyes Salt



Liev Schreiber is in talks to join Angelina Jolie in the action-thriller "Salt".

The movie, which starts filming next month in New York City, sees Jolie play the title character, a CIA officer who’s accused by a defector of being a Russian sleeper spy and must elude capture long enough to establish her innocence.

We're told Schreiber, next seen in "X-Men Origins : Wolverine", is up for a "major role" in the picture.

The film reunites Jolie with her "Bone Collector" director Phillip Noyce.

Chiwetel Ejiofor for Jolie's latest



One of the best actors around at the moment would have to be Chiwetel Ejiofor. The man is doing fabulous work - and rarely makes a wrong move. My personal favourite performance of the British actor is as 'The Operative', the cunning rouge of Joss Whedon's "Serenity". The movie mightn't have done much, but I believe it got Ejiofor noticed. Since then, the 34-year-old actor has embodied such terrific characters as Lola in "Kinky Boots", Luke in "Children of Men", Huey Lucas in "American Gangster", and recently, martial-arts guru Mike Terry in David Mamet's "Redbelt".

Philip Noyce has had the smarts to snap up Ejiofor for his next picture, "Salt". He'll join Angelina Jolie and Liev Schreiber for the Columbia Pictures' actioner, which centers on a CIA officer who is fingered as a Russian sleeper spy.

Before he locks and loads for "Salt", Ejiofor will be seen in Roland Emmerich's big-budget blockbuster "2012" which theaters in November.

First look: 'Salt' gives a grain of truth about Jolie's spy



The most recognizable woman in the world is going undercover.
Angelina Jolie begins work today on Salt, a spy thriller about a rogue CIA operative who tries to clear her name after she is accused of being a Russian sleeper agent — perhaps falsely, perhaps not.

Among the many different looks she has in the film are a soft-looking, all-business blonde and a raven-haired femme fatale who easily could be concealing a dagger or a gun.

Which is the real Salt? That's what filmmakers say is the central mystery.

"She's a character you never know," says Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who also produced Transformers and the upcoming G.I. Joe. "People who think they know the real her may or may not. Those who think they can tell whether she's in a disguise also may or may not.

"You're supposed to be kept guessing. She tells you her agenda, but are you supposed to believe it?"

Jolie's character, Evelyn A. Salt, originally was called Edwin A. Salt, back when the role was intended for Tom Cruise, who dropped out last summer. Jolie is a proven action star after the Tomb Raider movies, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Wanted, but di Bonaventura says it wasn't as simple as changing "he" to "she" in the script.

"I had no idea how complex it would be," he says. "We had to rethink the whole notion of how a man vs. a woman operates in the business world, in personal relationship and in friendships."

The film co-stars Liev Schreiber (Defiance) as Winter, her ally and supervisor in the CIA's Russia office, and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Children of Men) as Peabody, a counterintelligence officer who tries to take her down.

Salt is being directed by Phillip Noyce, who made the 1990s-era Jack Ryan films with Harrison Ford, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger.

He promises Salt will be "a reality-based spy movie with action set pieces as thrilling as the most crowd-pleasing movies of this genre."

Comparisons are inevitable. Salt recalls TV's Alias, with its female action hero donning multiple disguises. It also will be measured against the current spy-movie trendsetters: the Daniel Craig reboot of James Bond and Matt Damon's Jason Bourne films.

Di Bonaventura says Salt is different because the character is trying to hide truths about herself rather than discover them. "The question of Jason Bourne is 'Who am I?' " he says. "The question of Salt is, 'We know everything about her, but do we?' (Her pursuers) have a ton of information to act on, but that's where they begin to question what is real and what isn't."

Salt shoots in Washington and New York City. It opens in 2010.

Third Photo of Angelina Jolie in Salt



Yesterday, Columbia Pictures released the first two photos of Angelina Jolie as Evelyn Salt in Phillip Noyce’s thriller Salt. But the photos weren’t much to look at, just Jolie wearing different color wigs. Today the good folks at Columbia Picture have sent me a third (better) photo of Jolie as Salt. Click on the image above to enlarge. The film tells the story of a CIA officer who is outed as a Russian sleeper spy, and must evade capture by those who are convinced she’s aiming to assassinate the president.

Can Angelina Jolie get saltier?



Filmgoers who saw "Salt" well know how its ending was left open wider than Red Square. But will Sony drive through with a sequel?

The stars and principals that need to align have, at least, begun to come together.

Writer Kurt Wimmer has ideas for how to advance the story of the spy thriller, in which Evelyn Salt is a Russian plant in the highest echelons of the CIA who may or may not be working for her home country.

Director Phillip Noyce, for his part, is said to be interested in returning for a new installment. Scheduling and preferences would need to be worked out, however: Though the filmmaker doesn't officially have a new movie, he is involved with several high-priority development projects.

They include "Wenceslas Square," the indie thriller that was set to shoot in Serbia as early as this summer but has gotten hung up on casting issues as producers seek a big-name star. Noyce is also interested in directing Russell Crowe in the Australian love story "Dirt Music," which has long been a passion project for the director, though without financing yet, no one's moving on that one. And there's another romance film in the offing that would reunite Noyce with "Salt" producer Sunil Perkash.

Angelina Jolie had said that she's keen to work on a sequel; she has the Tim Burton film "Maleficent" and the big-franchise dreams of Kay Scarpetta waiting in the wings, but no commitment to a new movie now that she's finished Spyglass spy movie "The Tourist."

"Salt" producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura and, in particular, Sony remain a question, however. The line the studio has put out to insiders in Hollywood is that the the company wants to see how the film performs in key international territories -- over the coming weeks it opens in the U.K., Germany and numerous South American countries -- before deciding whether to move forward. The movie has performed reasonably well in the U.S., earning $96 million thus far, but the production cost $110 million, with marketing costs running along the usual lines for a star-driven action picture. And sequels tend to get pricier.

Then again, Sony has done the heavy lifting, launching an original script and an unknown title in a climate inhospitable to them. Now comes the easy part. Well, comparatively speaking.