Gal Godot is already a huge action movie star. She came to the public's attention largely thought the Fast & Furious movies, and now she's Wonder Woman, with a high profile sequel on the way this Christmas. However, the actress just jumped into the stratosphere of top Hollywood talent, as she just signed on to the new film Heart of Stone. The project is being described as a spy thriller along the lines of Mission: Impossible or James Bond, and the deal is reportedly worth eight figures, making Gadot one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood.
Heart of Stone already has solid talent behind it. The script is from Greg Rucka, whose graphic novel The Old Guard recently became a successful Netflix project, and Allison Schroeder, the Oscar nominated screenwriter behind Hidden Figures, Christopher Robin and more. Tom Harper, most recently the director of The Aeronauts is currently in talks to helm the project. Gal Gadot will co-produce the film as well as star.
There isn't a lot of additional detail about exactly what Heart of Stone is beyond being a spy movie, but even with that basic setup it sounds like a solid place to start. While not specifically stated in the Deadline article revealing the project, it seems almost certain that Heart of Stone is looking to be the beginning of a new action franchise rather than simply a one-off movie. Of course, everybody involved will likely want to wait to see if the first movie is a success before moving into full franchise mode, but putting the mere idea of a Gal Gadot-led spy franchise is too enticing an idea to ignore entirely.
There's certainly a lot of interest in the idea of a female-led spy movie. We've seen many people put forward the idea that the next James Bond should be a woman. One of the many responses to that concept that has wanted to see James Bond keep the status quo, is that new characters should be created if we want to see traditional characters taken in new directions like that. And so, that's exactly what this could end up being.
Heart of Stone is reportedly keeping its options open as far as distribution, so this could end up as a theatrical release or on a streaming platform. While this project is still in the early stages, and thus theatrical distribution will hopefully be a stronger option by the time the film comes to market, it's clear that streaming's viability won't be receding anytime soon, if ever. The fact that Gal Gadot's next movie Wonder Woman 1984 will debut on HBO Max, alongside theatrical release, is certainly proof of that.
