Ronan to be Wright’s Hanna

by Naman Ramachandran

07/01/2010 - BAFTA-winning British director Joe Wright is all set to reunite with 15-year-old Atonement [trailer] star Saoirse Ronan for Focus Features’ Hanna.

Ronan will play a 14-year-old East European girl who is brought up by her father to be an emotionless and remorseless CIA killer. After experiencing the joys and sorrows of adolescence with a French family, she is forced back into her father’s world and must fight to break free.

The film is said to be in the same genre as La Femme Nikita, Leon and the Bourne films. Wright will direct from a script by British writer David Farr (TV’s Spooks) and Canadian scribe Seth Lochhead (One of Those Days or: How Do I Get a Mark on My Forehead).

Leslie Holleran (The Hoax), Scott Nemes and Marty Adelstein (Made of Honour) will produce. Danny Boyle and Alfonso Cuaron were in talks to direct the film before Wright signed up for it. Wright’s Working Title/Universal magnum opus Indian Summer, which was to begin shooting on location in India this winter, has been put on the back burner due to budgetary constraints and some objections to the script from the Indian government.

Ronan won the IFTA Rising Star and Supporting Actress awards for Atonement and was Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated for the same film. She also won the IFTA Supporting Actress award for Death Defying Acts [trailer]. She has been nominated for Best Actress and Best Young Actor/Actress for the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards 2010 for her performance in The Lovely Bones.