While the world has been trying to guess who the next James Bond will be, an even more exciting project has been brewing—the action thriller Maude v Maude, which will pair none other than Angelina Jolie and Halle Berry as costars.
Plot details are still under wraps, except that the feature will be shot in multiple global locations and is described as a “Bond vs. Bourne” type of film. In addition to being major Hollywood icons, Jolie and Berry are also both veterans of the action genre. Jolie had a major breakthrough both for her own career and for female action stars with the original 2001 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider series, which was a hugely successful video game adaptation spawning an entire franchise. She also starred as the title character in the hit action thriller Salt in 2010, and opposite James McAvoy in the 2008 action thriller Wanted. Then there was the infamous Mr. & Mrs. Smith, in which she played an undercover spy opposite her ex-husband Brad Pitt.
Berry, of course, has had a storied and wide ranging career, becoming the first Black woman to win the Best Actress Oscar for her role in the 2001 romantic drama Monster’s Ball. But she’s also made a major impact in the action space, having starred as Storm in several X-Men movies, Jinx in the blockbuster Bond installment Die Another Day, and as Keanu Reeve’s ally in John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum.
Given the pair’s combined action chops, as well as their massive cultural impact since the early 2000s, Maude V. Maude is bound to make a splash. The pair have never starred into a movie together before, and news of the project immediately sent the internet into a tailspin. Film studio corner offices already had been. The film was reportedly the subject of a fierce bidding war over the weekend, which was eventually won by Warner Bros. New Zealand director Roseanne Liang (Shadow in the Cloud) will direct, with Berry and Jolie joining as producers.
Both actresses are busy with other projects; Berry is currently filming Never Let Go, a thriller about a mother battling an evil spirit. Jolie, who recently directed Without Blood starring Salma Hayek, will star in the upcoming biopic Maria about opera singer Maria Callas, directed by Pablo Larrain (Spencer).
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