Simon Kinberg And Star Jessica Chastain Reveal Their All-Female Spy Film "355"
Chastain pitched the idea to Kinberg on the set of the superhero film, and it reportedly didn't take long for her to have both him as well as an excitingly eclectic group of actresses on board.
The film will see Chastain joined by
Black Panther star Lupita Nyong'o,
The Dark Knight Rises' Marion Cotillard, fellow
X-Men alum Fan Bingbing and
Vicky Cristina Barcelona actress Penelope Cruz, all of whom will play agents for varied international intelligence agencies all brought together in order to stop a sinister crime organization from acquiring and using a deadly weapon.
The entire cast appeared at the Cannes Film Festival to begin the film's journey, where it landed a big international release deal before the script has even been completed. It was here that Chastain spoke to
Deadline about just how the desire to create the film came to her.
“I had so much fun working on The Help that I always wanted to do another female ensemble film and 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.’
The Help is perhaps an odd starting point for what is being described as a
Mission: Impossible-like high-octane spy thriller, but as Chastain continued
, it was more her 2012 film
Zero Dark Thirty that inspired the chosen genre as well as the film's fact-based title.
“When I was preparing for Zero Dark Thirty, I had incredible resources working in the CIA I got to learn from, we have a consultant in our film that has a lot of knowledge in espionage. This title came from one of the conversations I had with him. 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 a female spy. It’s the invisible woman who was never named.”
Kinberg added that tonally the Bourne franchise is the touchstone, but stressed that the film will very much be an ensemble picture.
“It won’t be as hyperbolic as some franchises, and unlike 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 spy craft 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.”
Another important aspect and goal for Chastain and her co-stars was, of course, female representation and broadening the roles and opportunities for women on film. Especially in such a male-dominated genre.
“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.”
