Cesar winning “A Prophet” star Niels Arestrup has joined the cast of Joe Wright’s teenage-assassin-tale “Hanna.”
The veteran Gallic actor teams with Saoirse Ronan and Aussie duo Cate Blanchett and Eric Bana for Wright’s Focus Features film, that’s due to start lensing as soon as next week. The shoot, that will span across Finland, Bavaria, Morocco, and Studio Babelsberg in Berlin, is based on Seth Lochhead’s script, with revisions from David Farr, Joe Penhall and Wright himself. 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.
Arestrup seems a likely fit to play the head of a French family who befriends Hanna (Ronan). Bana will portray her father while Blanchett, who reunites with Wright after their “Indian Summer” was pulled, will be the high-level CIA agent antagonist who is chasing Hanna down. The only remaining key roles to be cast are that of other members of the French family and a mid-fifties, ex-C.I.A. Englishman who is hired by Blanchett to assist her.
We recently reviewed the different drafts of the script, noting major improvement on the “Le Femme Nikita” meets ‘Bourne’ tale’s latter iteration, which we described as a “super taut, on-the-run thriller that not only has adrenaline and a quickened pulse but a heart and soul as well.” With production starting so soon, this could actually see late 2010 release if turned around quick enough.
Interesting that Joe Penhall and Joe Wright turned in drafts. Obviously Wright took the final pass…so i'm interested to see whats changes he made to the Farr revision.
No! No more drafts of the script, the Farr/Lochhead version is perfect!
Oh well, maybe it even got better? Loved the Farr/Lochhead draft though.
Can't wait to see this.
I hope Wright didn't change the script too much.
I am excited for this. I don't want them to rush it so I wouldn't mind a 2011 release date.
There are rumors that Anna Popplewell from the Chronicles of Narnia will be playing the daughter role.