Among Angelina Jolie’s fans, there’s been a constant thread of wistfulness over her 2010 role in Salt. Jolie played a double/triple agent and it was a fun action/spy romp. Considering which male-led films get sequels, it’s always been notable that no one thought to make Salt 2, because everyone would have loved it! Justice for Salt!! Well, instead of getting Salt 2: Saltier, Angelina has signed up for another action role in a film called Sunny. It’s already in production.

Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie (Maria) has commenced production on Sunny, a dark thriller that Eva Sørhaug (Tokyo Vice, Yellowjackets) is directing for Gramercy Park Media, A Higher Standard, and Nickel City Pictures.

In the spirit of classic mafia films, Sunny follows a female gangster who fights to protect her sons — and herself — from an abusive drug kingpin. But when a devastating event occurs, she only has a matter of hours to plot their permanent escape.

William Day Frank penned the script from a story after conceiving the story with Sørhaug. Gramercy Park Media’s Nathan Klingher is producing alongside Jolie, Nickel City Pictures’ Mark Fasano and A Higher Standard’s Jeffrey Greenstein, in association with Choice Films. Sørhaug is exec producing. A Higher Standard is handling worldwide sales, with WME Independent co-repping domestic.

Calling Jolie “a tour-de-force,” Nickel City’s Fasano told us, “People are going to be shocked by what she brings with this riveting character. This violent world that Eva and Angelina have crafted is grounded in survival and family led by a mother doing anything and everything within her power to protect her two boys.”

Gramercy Park’s Klingher added, “Angelina has made this role uniquely her own. Strong, character-driven thrillers like this are rare, and the attention to detail that she and Eva have brought to the film is impressive to watch.”

Recently earning Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award nominations for her turn as opera singer Maria Callas in Pablo Larraín’s Maria, Jolie’s other upcoming films at the moment include Alice Winocour’s TIFF-premiering Fashion Week drama Couture, the Marc Forster comedy Anxious People, and The Initiative, a spy thriller reuniting her with Mr. & Mrs. Smith director Doug Liman. She is repped by WME, and Johnson, Shapiro, Slewett & Kole.

[From Deadline]

I’m just so happy that Angelina is getting back into her acting bag. I supported her forays into writing and directing, and I understand that she needed some time to heal from the Brad Pitt catastrophe. But of course we all wanted to see her run around with guns, beating the sh-t out of people. If Angelina has bangs and leather pants, you can trust that she’s going to pistol whip someone and/or double cross them. Also: I forgot about The Initiative? That was announced over the summer. It’s supposed to be “Training Day but with spies.” I’m so happy!!

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.