Jessica Chastain’s female all-star spy thriller “355” has secured French distribution from SND.
The film will also star Lupita Nyong’o, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz and Fan Bingbing. Simon Kinberg (“X-Men; Dark Phoenix”) will direct.
The actresses appeared together for a photocall (above) to promote “355” on Thursday from the 71st annual Cannes Film Festival at Majestic Beach Pier.
Theresa Rebeck wrote the screenplay based on an original idea by Chastain. Chastain and Kelly Carmichael are producing the ensemble through Chastain’s Freckle Films along with Kinberg under his Kinberg Genre banner.
“355” centers on the five top agents from organizations around the world uniting to stop a global syndicate from acquiring a weapon that could plunge an already unstable world into total chaos. They have to overcome cultural and political differences to form a bond and work together.
“I had so much fun working on ‘The Help’ that I always wanted to do another female ensemble film,” Chastain told Deadline. “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.
The Oscar-nominated actress added, “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.”
FilmNation Entertainment and CAA Media Finance Group repped the project in the deal.
Deadline first reported the news about the French acquisition.