355: YES, PLEASE

OMG GIVE ME THIS MOVIE IN MY FACE ASAP AND TAKE MY MONEY:

Hard to imagine there will be a hotter film package unveiled at Cannes next week than 355, a large-scale espionage film that Simon Kinberg will direct with an all-star international spy cast of Jessica Chastain, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Fan Bingbing, and Lupita Nyong'o. They'll play international agents in a grounded, edgy action thriller that aims to alter a male-dominated genre with a true female ensemble, in the style of spy franchises The Bourne Identity, Mission: Impossible, and James Bond. The script is by Theresa Rebeck. The hope is to launch a franchise.

..."I love the Bourne movies, the Mission: Impossible films, and wondered why, except for Charlie's Angels, there hadn't been a true female ensemble action-thriller spy film. That got my wheels going, along with the idea of casting actresses from all over the world to truly make it an international project. I realized the incredible creative freedom we would have with that. I brought the idea to Simon, told him about the actresses I was thinking of, and he was so sweet. He said, 'I want to do it with you.'

"Then I called all the women, told them what I was envisioning and that I wanted it to be a collaborative process, and how we would all create this together," Chastain said. "The one thing that felt important is that we all show up at Cannes, because that would be the beginning of our journey together. Every single actress I called said yes, on the phone call. They committed to Cannes and to everything. So far it has been a very wonderfully easy process."

Women are so difficult, amirite? Snort.

The name of this film WHICH I WANT TO BE WATCHING RIGHT NOW BUT UGHHHH IT HASN'T EVEN STARTED SHOOTING YET comes from a conversation Chastain had with a consultant on the film, who told her that "Agent 355 was the code name of a female spy during the American Revolution. She was one of the very first spies for the United States, and her identity is still unknown. For a lot of women who work in the CIA and other organizations like that, Code 355 is a universal slang term for female spy. It's the invisible woman who was never named."

AHHHHHH HOW LONG DO I HAVE TO WAIT TO SEE THIS? Thank Maude Oceans 8 will be in front of my face soon, or else I probably wouldn't make it!

"[U]nlike the other films that revolve around one main character, the goal here is the true ensemble, all these characters who have their own distinct traits, histories — fully formed and complex characters with equal weight in the film. That's unique, as is having all female spies. We are digging into the reality of spycraft today. There are all kinds of things that seem out of a James Bond or even a sci-fi movie, but the technology is so advanced that it's real. Having someone who knows that reality informing the script has been really helpful."

..."The action genre has long been dominated by male heroes, and it's so exciting to be part of a film that will allow for not just one female action hero but a whole ensemble of very capable, fierce female characters that reject tired stereotypes," she said. "Characters that liberate from the confines of stereotypical traits. That is something that excited me about this, the opportunity to create different types of female heroes."

I AM EXCITED, TOO, JESSICA CHASTAIN! I'll just be over here watching Spy on a loop while I await the arrival of 355.