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Joel Edgerton In Talks To Star With Jennifer Lawrence In Spy Thriller ‘Red Sparrow,’ Voices Opinion On Australia’s Gay Marriage Ban

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 04:59 PST, Aug 29, 2016

Joel Edgerton could join Jennifer Lawrence in the spy thriller Red Sparrow, according to Variety. The 42-year-old Black Mass star is in early talks to join the Hunger Games actress in the upcoming Frances Lawrence-directed film.

Red Sparrow is based on the Jason Matthews novel of the same name and is being directed by Frances Lawrence, who has worked with Jennifer Lawrence on the previous three Hunger Games installments. It’s yet unclear what role Joel Edgerton will play in the film, which is scheduled to debut on November 10, 2017.

Eric Warren Singer, who wrote the script for American Hustle, originally penned the screenplay for Red Sparrow starring Joel Edgerton, but it was later rewritten by Justin Haythe. Steve Zaillian, who penned the script for the Oscar-winning Schindler’s List, is set to produce the upcoming spy thriller with Garrett Basch executive producing.

Red Sparrow is centered around events in modern-day Russia, where a young woman (played by Jennifer Lawrence) becomes the victim of the intelligence bureaucracy and becomes a “sparrow” against her will.

The “sparrow” is a trained seductress who gets the mission to operate against a first-tour CIA officer (presumably played by Joel Edgerton) who is responsible for the CIA’s penetration of Russian Intelligence.

In other news, Joel Edgerton spoke out about the continuing ban on gay marriage in Australia, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The Great Gatsby actor compared old U.S. state laws and mixed-race marriages.

Joel Edgerton joined reporters after the first Cannes Film Festival screening of Loving in which he co-stars alongside Michael Shannon. In the film, Edgerton portrays the role of a tight-lipped bricklayer Richard Loving who lives in Virginia.

Richard Loving (played by Joel Edgerton) was arrested along with his black wife named Mildred in the 1960s for breaking the laws against miscegenation. And Edgerton thinks it’s “quite astounding” that other people’s opinions can force loving couples to be apart.

“One of the things that really struck me about working this film is that what happens between two individuals is nobody else’s business.”

Joel Edgerton also added that there is nothing wrong between two people “whatever they look like, whatever gender they are” if they don’t do any harm or damage to others and if they are doing things in a spirit of goodness.

“What does it matter to me what you want to do? Why should I tell you what to do? I think it’s very wrong.”

Jeff Nichols, the director of Mud starring Matthew McConaughey, directed Loving because he kept a close eye on the lives of Richard and Mildred Loving, who married in 1967 in Washington, D.C. Then the two decided to return home, but their house was raided by the police and they were imprisoned for breaking the state laws.

Then, a judge gave Richard (Joel Edgerton) and Mildred (Ruth Negga) two options: divorce or leave the state. But they already had three children at the time and leaving the state would be almost impossible for them.

But Joel Edgerton says Australia can relate to this story as much as the United State can. The actor said there is a “definite resonance” between that story and Australia’s “rights of gay marriage and the latency of under-the-surface racism.”

Joel Edgerton also added that these issues need to be talked about and that films like Loving can really “illuminate that.” Edgerton is a native Australian and is best known for his roles in Black Mass alongside Johnny Depp, Warrior alongside Tom Hardy, The Great Gatsby alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, and Exodus: Gods and Kings alongside Christian Bale.

[Photo by Joel Ryan/AP Images]

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