LOS ANGELES, April 4 — Rachel Weisz is in talks to play a “key role” in the standalone Marvel Cinematic Universe movie Black Widow, which revolves around Scarlett Johansson’s ex-KGB character from a host of Iron Man, Captain America and Avengers movies.
Variety reports that both Weisz and Marvel are keen for the deal to go through, while The Hollywood Reporter has David Harbour likewise in talks over the project.
Weisz, a multi-award winning actress for her turns in The Constant Gardener and The Favourite, has appeared in everything from action movies like The Mummy (1999) and The Bourne Legacy to toasts of the festival circuit such as The Lobster and The Fountain.
As well as Black Widow, she is also involved with producing and co-starring in an adaptation of Max Porter’s missing persons novel Lanny.
David Harbour is replacing Ron Perlman as the title character in the April 12 Hellboy reboot and co-stars in kidnapping rescue movie Dhaka, whose filming wrapped in March.
Neither are being linked with specific named roles, though Florence Pugh (Fighting With My Family, Outlaw King), already on board, is expected to play Black Widow’s rival.
The story is thought to involve Black Widow’s past as a deadly KGB-trained spy, and her defection to Avengers-adjacent US government agency Shield, the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.
That places the new movie prior to Iron Man 2, which introduced her to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a Stark Industries assistant and Shield plant, but after the events of Captain Marvel, which helped set up Shield in the first place.
With Australia’s Cate Shortland of film festival hits Lore and Berlin Syndrome installed as director, filming is to begin in June 2019, though the Black Widow movie has not yet been associated with a particular release date. — AFP-Relaxnews
