Oscar winner Halle Berry is returning to Netflix, where she has signed on to star opposite Mark Wahlberg in the blue-collar spy thriller Our Man From Jersey, Collider has confirmed.
What's interesting about this casting news is that the project is still without a director, and Berry typically likes to know who she's working with, though it's possible that Netflix has its eye on a filmmaker and their deal just hasn't closed yet.
In any case, the script hails from David Guggenheim (Safe House), and though plot details are being kept under wraps, Our Man From Jersey is described as a spy movie in the vein of James Bond, albeit with a blue-collar lead. What, was the title Our Man From Boston taken or something?
Wahlberg and his longtime collaborator Stephen Levinson are producing the movie, which brings them back to Netflix following Spenser Confidential. Come to think of it, that movie could've been called Our Man From Boston, too. Deadline reports that even though Wahlberg's hero hails from New Jersey, the film itself will be shot in London early next year.
Netflix recently acquired Berry's directorial debut Bruised, which will hit the streamer later this year, and Berry has also signed on to star in its sci-fi movie The Mothership, as Collider first reported.
Berry is no stranger to spy movies or action extravaganzas, having played Jinx in the James Bond movie Die Another Day opposite Pierce Brosnan's 007. She also played Storm in the X-Men franchise and recently co-starred alongside Keanu Reeves and two fierce German Shepherds in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum. Berry will soon be seen in Roland Emmerich's sci-fi movie Moonfall, and sadly, she remains the only Black woman to have won the Academy Award for Best Actress thanks to her turn in the 2002 drama Monster's Ball.
I may not know whether Berry is playing Wahlberg's partner/handler/rival/love interest in Our Man From Jersey but I like their pairing on paper, and look forward to seeing who Netflix hires to direct this movie, which could very well wind up as one of the streamer's most-watched titles based on the response to Spenser Confidential, which didn't feature an A-list co-star en route to racking up a jaw-dropping 85 million views on the service.