Set pictures from Joe Wright’s teenage assassin story “Hanna” have provided our first looks at Cate Blanchett and Eric Bana in their roles as opposing forces in the life of the titular Hanna, played by Saoirse Ronan.
The film sees Blanchett play Maria, a C.I.A. agent chasing Hanna’s father (Bana), himself an AWOL agent who has been in hiding for years, raising Hanna in the Swedish wilderness. “A Prophet” actor Niels Arestrup also co-stars as the head of a French family who befriends Hanna on her journey.
Lensing is currently taking place in Berlin in what will be a cross-Europe affair spanning Finland, Bavaria and Morroco following the attempts of Ronan’s character to reunite with her father. Here’s a full synopsis:
Hanna is a teenage girl. Uniquely, she has the strength, the stamina, and the smarts of a solider; these come from being raised by her father, an ex-CIA man, in the wilds of Sweden. Living a life unlike any other teenager, her upbringing and training have been one and the same, all geared to making her the perfect assassin. The turning point in her adolescence is a sharp one; sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna journeys stealthily across Europe while eluding agents dispatched after her by a ruthless intelligence operative with secrets of her own. As she nears her ultimate target, Hanna faces startling revelations about her existence and unexpected questions about her humanity.
Our review of the film’s latest script iteration described the “Le Femme Nikita” meets ‘Bourne’ pic as a “super taut, on-the-run thriller that not only has adrenaline and a quickened pulse but a heart and soul as well.” The Focus Features pic could possibly make it by year’s end with a quick turnaround but seems primed for 2011.
