As we'd all like to, Darren Aronofsky may next turn his attention to sexy Russian spies

By Sean O'Neal | August 14, 2013 | 8:12pm

Aux Features Film

Having finished wrangling brutish, reasonless animals in the Russell Crowe-starring Noah—and probably also dealt with some bears or bulls or something—Darren Aronofsky is, understandably, thinking slightly smaller for his next project. Though earlier reports suggested he might tackle a movie about George Washington, Deadline says he could instead move on to Red Sparrow, an adaptation of the spy novel released earlier this year by former CIA operative turned author Jason Matthews, and a story that completely one-ups any boring old George Washington one by dint of having sexy Russian spies.

The story, set in contemporary yet still frustratingly backwards Russia, concerns a female Russian agent who’s drafted against her will to work as a “trained seductress”—or “sparrow”—then becomes intertwined with a rookie CIA officer “who handles the agency’s most sensitive penetration of Russian intelligence,” presumably under the codename Operation Awwww Yeahhhhh. For those who’d like to have the entire story thereafter spelled out for them, Deadline has all the details, but suffice it to say, the Cold War has never been this hot—preferably in big red lettering, on the poster.