Charlize Theron Prompts Protagonist Gender Change For Sony’s ‘The Gray Man’

How convincing was Charlize Theron’s action-star work in this summer’s Mad Max: Fury Road? Sony Pictures is in talks with her to come aboard The Gray Man, an adaptation of the Mark Greaney novel that at one time had Brad Pitt ready to star with James Gray directing. Sony has been pushing me off this since July, and they still say it’s early, but I’ve confirmed that Theron is in the process of attaching herself as the star, with her Denver and Delilah label coming aboard as producers alongside Joe Roth.

The script is by Joe and Anthony Russo, who were at one time attached as directors before they got busy with Captain America: Civil War and the next two installments of The Avengers.

The thriller focuses on an expert CIA op-turned-assassin who is forced to evade adversaries as he saves the lives of daughters he didn’t know he had. Obviously that is harder to do when the protagonist is female, but I guess they’ll figure it out. Sony famously changed the gender of another spy thriller, Salt, which was tailored for Angelina Jolie after Tom Cruise bowed out of the lead role. It doesn’t happen that often and puts Theron in rare territory. She runs Denver and Delilah with Beth Kono and A.J. Dix.