Though this espionage thriller was originally written to star Tom Cruise, it looks like the title character will experience one dramatic gender change. Stepping in for Mr. Cruise is Angelina Jolie.

Angelina Jolie for Edwin A. Salt

Columbia Pictures will have Kurt Wimmer redraft the script for Edwin A. Salt, a film that will now feature Jolie as the title character - a CIA officer who's accused by a defector of being a Russian sleeper spy and must elude capture long enough to establish her innocence

While the project had quite a few other male suitors, Columbia Pictures immediately shifted gears when Angelina Jolie showed interest. As it turns out, there won't need to be too much edits to make the character work in female form. I can only assume that the studio will, however, have to change the title.


Columbia Pictures does have their reasoning for going with Jolie. After watching Universal Pictures market the action-packed Wanted is if it were her movie -- something that earned the studio $132 million domestically -- Columbia Pictures knows that they have a safe bet in placing her back in the action genre.

If the scheduling works out, soon-to-be-changed Edwin A. Salt will serve as a return vehicle for Jolie, who recently picked up kids the old fashioned way by giving birth to twins.