Irish actor Ciarán Hinds, best known for his roles in Game of Thrones and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, is the latest addition to Red Sparrow, the espionage thriller in the works from Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games).
Hinds will play a high-ranking Russian official known as Zyugonov, who presides over much of the country’s intelligence agency. In light of today’s casting coup, he now joins an ensemble that includes Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Jeremy Irons, Joely Richardson and Jennifer Lawrence, marking the latter’s first collaboration with Francis Lawrence post-Panem. Indeed, the Oscar-winner has laid claim to a juicy role in Red Sparrow, after securing the part of Russian intelligence officer Dominika Egorova more than a year ago.
Under the cast-iron bureaucracy of Russian intelligence, Dominika is trained as a seductress, one considered indispensable in the mission of surveilling budding CIA officer Nathaniel Nash (Edgerton). It tees up a fiery dynamic between the two warring spies, and though Jason Matthews’ source novel largely takes place in the present day, echoes of the Cold War can be found throughout Dominika’s life as a double agent.
In its long journey to the big screen – Darren Aronofsky once flirted with the possibility of taking the reins – Red Sparrow was first adapted by American Hustle scribe Eric Warren Singer, before Justin Haythe later turned in a second and seemingly final draft.
Red Sparrow is expected to take flight on November 10th. Hinds, meanwhile, is attached to the role of Steppenwolf in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which will incidentally open a week later on November 17th.