Source:Variety

August 12, 2008

Columbia Pictures espionage thriller Edwin A. Salt, once expected to star Tom Cruise, will be rewritten by screenwriter Kurt Wimmer as a star vehicle for Angelina Jolie, reports Variety. Philip Noyce remains attached as director and Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Sunil Perkash are producing.

Jolie is close to a deal to play the title character, a CIA officer who's accused by a defector of being a Russian sleeper spy and must elude capture long enough to establish her innocence.

Cruise had long flirted with the project, but that ended recently. The well-regarded script had several male movie stars circling.

Jolie took a liking to it, prompting the studio's decision to rewrite it. The trade adds that the project won't require that much of an overhaul to suit her.

Edwin A. Salt will undergo a title change, and if everything falls into place, the film shapes up as a return vehicle for Jolie, who recently gave birth to twins. Another candidate for her return is the Lionsgate drama Atlas Shrugged, which has been adapted by Randall Wallace from the Ayn Rand novel.