Luc Besson, the French director with a penchant for putting women front and center in his action movies, has found his next leading lady, The Hollywood Reporter said.
Scarlett Johansson is in final negotiations to star in Besson's latest helming effort, the action-thriller Lucy. Universal has taken worldwide distribution rights with the exception of France, Benelux and China.
Besson wrote the script for Lucy, which centers on a woman forced to become a drug mule. But the drug instead goes into her system, transforming her into an ass-kicking machine. She can absorb knowledge instantaneously, is able to move objects with her mind and can't feel pain and other discomforts.
Lucy brings Besson back to his 1990s heyday, when he made movies with strong heroines such as La Femme Nikita and Joan of Arc as well as, to a lesser extent, The Professional and The Fifth Element. He most recently wrapped the Mafia drama Malavita, which stars Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer and Tommy Lee Jones; the movie will be distributed by Relativity later this year.
