Warner Bros. has landed a package deal that features two Oscar-winning actresses attached to a brand new action project that will be helmed by Kiwi director Roseanne Liang (“Shadow In The Cloud“) with Halle Berry and Angelina Jolie set for “Maude v Maude.”
Deadline reports that the film is a “Bond vs. Bourne” type of global action thriller set in various international locations to be announced at a later date. Berry and Jolie will not only star but also produce “Maude v Maude.” New studio heads, Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, apparently big aggressively for the project over the weekend as part of their effort to get more movie star-centric films on their slate. This is certainly an unexpected actress pairing, but it should be fun to watch on the big screen given both their extensive backgrounds in the action genre.
Berry was a key player in the first wave of “X-Men” films as Storm alongside roles in more traditional action projects like the final Pierce Brosnan era James Bond installment “Die Another Day.” Other action roles for Berry in the 2000s include hacker heist thriller “Swordfish,” which reunited her with “X-Men” co-star Hugh Jackman. More recent action roles for Berry include a supporting role in the “Kingsman” franchise, and a standout performance in the “John Wick” franchise as Sophia in “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.”
Meanwhile, Jolie started out her action career playing a professional car thief opposite Nicolas Cage in the 2000 “Gone In 60 Seconds” remake before moving on to lead her own films as the beloved video game heroine, Lara Croft, in two “Tomb Raider” movies. Other action projects that made a splash for Jolie over the years include “Mrs. & Mrs. Smith,” “Wanted,” “Salt,” the Taylor Sheridan-directed thriller “Those Who Wish Me Dead.” More recently, Jolie took up the superhero mantle once more with Marvel‘s “Eternals.”
Hopefully, more details will arise about “Maude v Maude” soon. Given the premise and stars, it feels like Warner Bros. should have made this film in 2005 or so, with Berry and Jolie at the height of their action stardom, but maybe the premise of this one is too good for De Luca and Abdy to pass up.