Joe Wright to shoot action film

Atonement director Joe Wright is in talks to shoot the thriller Hanna, his first foray into the action realm.

The film, described as having shades of La Femme Nikita and the Bourne movies, centers on a 14-year-old Eastern European girl who has been raised by her father to be a cold-blooded killing machine.

She connects with a French family, forms a friendship with their daughter and goes through the pangs of adolescence.

When the girl is dragged back to her father's world and discovers that she was bred as a killer in a CIA prison camp, she must fight her way to a free life.

The project has garnered considerable attention in director circles since getting set up at Focus Features in 2007, with Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) kicking its tyres at one point and Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men) circling it in recent weeks.

Wright was due to direct Cate Blanchett in the period love story Indian Summer.

But as the project's budget rose amid an unfavorable climate for upscale adult dramas, Working Title/Universal opted to put it on hold.

His credits include The Soloist and Pride & Prejudice.

- Reuters