Joel Edgerton in Talks to Star Opposite Jennifer Lawrence in Spy Thriller RED SPARROW

Nearly a year ago, I wrote about how Jennifer Lawrence might reteam with her Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence for a sexy spy thriller called Red Sparrow. At the time, I mentioned that it would be a while until things were finalized, and now it looks like casting is finally falling into place. Deadline reports that Joel Edgerton is in early talks to star opposite Lawrence in the movie, which is based on the novel by author Jason Matthews:

In present-day Russia, ruled by blue-eyed, unblinking President Vladimir Putin, Russian intelligence officer Dominika Egorova struggles to survive in the post-Soviet intelligence jungle. Ordered against her will to become a “Sparrow,” a trained seductress, Dominika is assigned to operate against Nathaniel Nash, a young CIA officer who handles the Agency’s most important Russian mole.

Spies have long relied on the “honey trap,” whereby vulnerable men and women are intimately compromised. Dominika learns these techniques of “sexpionage” in Russia’s secret “Sparrow School,” hidden outside of Moscow. As the action careens between Russia, Finland, Greece, Italy, and the United States, Dominika and Nate soon collide in a duel of wills, tradecraft, and—inevitably—forbidden passion that threatens not just their lives but those of others as well. As secret allegiances are made and broken, Dominika and Nate’s game reaches a deadly crossroads. Soon one of them begins a dangerous double existence in a life-and-death operation that consumes intelligence agencies from Moscow to Washington, DC.

It's a little weird that Edgerton is 42 and Lawrence is about to turn 26, but I guess a spy's gotta do what a spy's gotta do?