“Peppermint” has found a director. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the in-demand female-led action film will be helmed by Pierre Morel (“Taken”). Morel signed on to direct the revenge story after Lakeshore Entertainment acquired the film rights in “a fierce bidding war.”
Chad St. John (“London Has Fallen”) penned “Peppermint,” which follows “a young mother who finds herself with nothing to lose, and is now going to take from her rivals the very life they stole from her.” Lakeshore’s Tom Rosenberg, Gary Lucchesi, Richard Wright, and Eric Reid are producing. Sentient Entertainment’s Renee Tab and Chris Tuffin will exec produce.
Lakeshore reportedly shelled out “low-to-mid-seven figures” for the film with plans to fast-track development. Production is expected to kick off this fall.
“Female spins on the action genre are now heating up,” THR writes, specifically referencing the upcoming Charlize Theron-starrer “Atomic Blonde.” This is great and makes sense since women’s stories have a higher return on investment. However — as we previously noted about “Atomic Blonde” — these stories continue to be presented through the male gaze.
Woman-led/men-directed films like “Atomic Blonde,” “Sucker Punch,” and “Charlie’s Angels” often objectify women’s bodies though they try to present the overall message is “feminist” and pro-woman. (How often have you seen an action film where the woman dons a sexed-up disguise for some reason or another?) It’s also common to see female characters subjected to brutal, revenge-provoking violence (“Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”). Sometimes the women’s stories are usurped entirely by their male co-stars (“Sicario”).
As well-meaning as many of these films are, they’re skewed because they depict women through a man’s perspective. If studios are genuinely invested in telling action-oriented stories about women, it only makes sense that they also hire women to write and direct.
