While today’s fairly huge news that Brad Pitt will be starring in an original film to debut on Netflix may have spurred some to wonder what happened to his spy movie with Robert Zemeckis, fear not. Variety reports that Oscar winner Marion Cotillard is in talks to star opposite Pitt in the Forrest Gump and Back to the Future director’s secretive, untitled picture for Paramount, New Regency, and Graham King, and they’ve also got details on exactly when this thing will get in front of cameras.

We learned in February that Pitt and Zemeckis were teaming up for a “sweeping romantic thriller” scripted by Locke and Eastern Promises scribe Steven Knight, and many assumed that this would be Pitt’s next movie after shooting Adam McKay’s financial crisis ensemble drama The Big Short. However, Pitt will be shooting his Netflix satirical comedy War Machine this August, so clearly that isn’t happening.

355-marion-cotillard
Image via Sony Pictures Classics

Variety notes that Zemeckis and Pitt both asked to have production on their untitled picture pushed in order to accommodate a number of scheduling conflicts. Cotillard is starting filming on Assassin’s Creed opposite Michael Fassbender at the end of the summer, Zemeckis has press commitments for his next film The Walk opening in October, and Pitt has his Netflix picture.


So now the plan is to shoot the untitled film in the first quarter of 2016, which allows for Cotillard to star opposite Pitt in the pic. And what's the movie about, exactly? Per THR, the movie takes place during WWII, with Pitt and Cotillard playing assassins who fall in love during a mission in Casablanca to kill a German ambassador. The two subsequently marry, but problems arise when Pitt is informed that his wife is a double agent and is ordered to kill her. In the hands of Zemeckis, who will no doubt have some sort of cutting edge technology hook up his sleeves, this is incredibly enticing. Add Pitt and Cotillard to the mix, and this is a must-see.

brad-pitt-robert-zemeckis-movie
Image via Sony Pictures