Joel Edgerton in talks to join Jennifer Lawrence in 'Red Sparrow'

Image from We Got This Covered

By Darian Scalamoni

            When one looks at some of the most underrated actors within the industry today, Joel Edgerton has to be up there as one of the best. He was first seen in Animal Kingdom, an Australian crime film that has now has a spinoff television series at TNT. After that though, Edgerton had begun to get cast in some great films like Warrior and The Gift, which was also his directorial debut. Also, some bigger budgeted projects that didn’t do so well like Exodus: Gods and Kings and one of the biggest disappointments that I’ve ever seen, The Great Gatsby. Today, Deadline reports that Edgerton is in early talks to join Red Sparrow which is an espionage thriller set to be directed by Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, I Am Legend) and starring Jennifer Lawrence.

            The movie is an adaptation of a novel by the same name written by Jason Matthews and seems to be the beginning of a franchise. Lawrence’s character is a Russian intelligence officer named Dominika Egorova, and though there is no hint as to who Edgerton would play within the film, the only other major character would be CIA operative Nathaniel Nash, so we are pegging him in that role in a speculative sense. Though I wasn’t all that interested in this film before, the addition of Edgerton definitely excites me.

            Edgerton has already been seen in Jane Got a Gun and Jeff Nichols’ Midnight Special this year but still has another film due out titled Loving. That film is also directed by Jeff Nichols and stars Edgerton and Ruth Negga as an interracial couple that are sentenced to prison in Virginia in 1958 for getting married. He also signed on to a Netflix film directed by David Ayer, Bright, that co-stars Will Smith and that is due out next year.