Though it seems like a no-brainer considering she was going to play the lead of “Indian Summer” before it was canned by Universal, we’ve got to give it up to one of our readers who called this: Cate Blanchett will play the female antagonist in Joe Wright’s teenage assassin action thriller, “Hanna.”
The film stars Saoirse Ronan as a teenage girl raised as a lethal killing machine by her ex-CIA operative father played by Eric Bana. DHD doesn’t say who Blanchett will play, but having read the script, a sort of “La Femme Nikita” meets “Bourne” full throttle actioner by Seth Lochhead and David Farr, we can say without question it’s the role of Maria, the central villain, a high-level CIA agent chasing down Hanna, who knows her father’s methods all too well from their past history and work together in the field.
That’s pretty much it for the major casting roles. Though there is one other CIA figure solely known as The American, who could be a decent name if he’s willing to play a supporting role. And there are a few agents here and there that could be names as well. A Turkish family that take in Hanna for a few sequences are pretty crucial as well, but we’d assume they’d hire some international names not well known to U.S. audiences.Blanchett’s role isn’t huge either, but it is key. We’ve only read the Lochhead draft, and we’re curious what Farr’s contributions to it are and how much they flesh out or expand the story. Hopefully a better ending and a stronger opening with more context? That said, it has a ton of potential and was a very fast-moving enjoyable read, just needed more set-up. Still, we’re very excited for this and it has all the potential for an intelligent, quick-moving thriller.