In the latest film adaptation of a comic, as reported by Variety, it looks like Greg Rucka’s classic “Queen & Country” is coming to the big screen starring Ellen Page. Page, no stranger to comic book-based movies as X-Men: The Last Stand and Days of the Future Past’s Kitty Pryde, will be starring as the lead heroine Tara Chace, a British spy who goes up against terrorist while dealing with her own personal issues that become increasingly more prevalent as the series goes on.
Page, whose rather notably not British, does feel like a good fit for the role now that she’s evolved beyond the shackles that Juno placed on her. It’s perhaps not apparent at first, but her performances in Inception, Hard Candy and most recently the East as well as Beyond: Two Souls (a video game she starred in via motion capture) do show her strength as an actress with more of an edge. One could easily see her taking on the role of Chace.
What’s noteworthy about this, though, is that apparently Fox has been saving this project for Page in order for it to have franchise potential. That’s rather exciting: in a world where female-led action film franchises are few and far between outside of a chosen few that arguably angle for niche audiences, Fox will be putting out an action film with a female lead for a new franchise (even if it is an adaptation of a comic from 2001) that’s about as open to audiences as anything ever was. People LOVE spy/thriller action films; it’s even compared to the Bourne franchise in the Variety article, which adds up in terms of concept and is exciting pending execution.
I, for one, have high hopes. Lets just hope this goes a bit better than the “Whiteout” adaptation.
