Mary Elizabeth Winstead Joins Ang Lee’s ‘Gemini Man’

Winstead (and Clive Owen) join Will Smith in an impressive line-up.

Ang Lee‘s next feature, Gemini Man, is seriously shaping up with an exciting addition to the cast list. Mary Elizabeth Winstead has been offered the role of the female lead, beating out the likes of Tatiana Maslany.

Gemini Man has been in the works for about 20 years. However, the lack of technological advancement in 1997 made the premise of the movie impossible to execute. Gemini Man revolves around an assassin (to be played by Will Smith) who faces off a younger cloned version of himself. The film will be co-produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Films and Skydance Media.

Winstead will be playing an operative who works with Smith’s character who initially keeps an eye on him; they eventually team up against the corporation that wants to kill him. Clive Owen also joined the project this week and will be playing a currently unnamed antagonist who is the head of the cloning program.

So far, Gemini Man sounds like very typical action movie fare that would attract such big names, but still have a higher-than-average chance to fizzle out at the box office. We’re all familiar with how Smith’s acting career has been unfolding lately, even though by all accounts, everyone still loves him; just not his movies.

So, this could be some cause for concern, if not for the fact that this is an Ang Lee movie. To his credit, Lee has tried to make just about every genre of film out there, even if it doesn’t always completely work. His wide range includes films big and small, and although action, adventure and spectacle are sometimes the focal points of his narratives, Lee often opts for a more considered, emotional approach in terms of characterization. This leads me to believe that whatever Gemini Man ends up being, it wouldn’t be a typical action movie. To preemptively class it among the slew of movies starring aging male Hollywood stars beating some folks up would be to ignore Lee’s track record of deeply thoughtful and moving films.

Gemini Man is targeted to premiere October 4, 2019.

Related Topics: Ang Lee, Gemini Man, Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Sheryl Oh often finds herself fascinated (and let's be real, a little obsessed) with actors and their onscreen accomplishments, developing Film School Rejects' Filmographies column as a passion project. She's not very good at Twitter but find her at @sherhorowitz anyway. (She/Her)