Three-time Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson is set to join Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Netflix's assassin thriller Kate, Collider has learned.
Winstead will star as a ruthless criminal operative who is irreversibly poisoned, giving her less than 24 hours to exact revenge on her enemies. In the process, she forms an unexpected bond with the daughter of one of her past victims.
Cedric Nicolas-Troyan (The Huntsman: Winter's War) is directing from a script by Umair Aleem, and frequent Netflix supplier Bryan Unkeless (Bright) is producing alongside Kelly McCormick (Deadpool 2) and Patrick Newall (The Old Man and the Gun). Hobbs & Shaw director David Leitch will executive produce with Scott Morgan.
It's funny, my boss Marc Fernandez and I were just talking about Harrelson yesterday -- how good he was as the villain in War for the Planet of the Apes, and how he would've made a great Kraven the Hunter back in the day. It's all but impossible now, given that he's poised to play Carnage in Venom 2 -- or at least, that's what the end of the first film set up. But hey, a fanboy can dream. I think fans would be happy with anyone playing Kraven in the next Spider-Man movie, and while it doesn't have to be Kraven's Last Hunt, which is certainly darker than what that franchise has been thus far, it sure would be great if it was.
Anyway, I have no idea whether Harrelson is playing the villain in Kate, as character details were't immediately available, but Winstead's assassin requires a formidable foe, and who better than Harrelson to tackle that assignment? The truth is, I don't even care who he's playing, because the mere fact that he's confirmed to co-star in Kate is enough for me.
Meanwhile, the film's producers have put together an impressive crew that boasts a litany of action credits, including Black Panther, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Fate of the Furious, The Bourne Supremacy and the John Wick franchise. Clearly, this team knows what it's doing, and with Birds of Prey and Gemini Man star Winstead in the title role (I assume), this scrappy movie seems to have a real shot at breakout potential on the streaming service.
Harrelson is coming off of the Netflix movie The Highwaymen, which was good, but a little long. Check it out if you haven't yet. As you might imagine, Harrelson and Kevin Costner are great together. Harrelson also recently starred in the Best Picture nominee Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, as well as the Disney tentpole Solo: A Star Wars Story. He'll soon be seen in Roland Emmerich's Midway and Sony's sequel Zombieland: Double Tap. Harrelson is represented by CAA.
