Netflix Wins Gal Gadot Skydance Spy film Heart Of Stone Tom harper

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has prevailed in a competitive auction for worldwide rights on Heart of Stone, the espionage thriller developed by Skydance Media with Gal Gadot starring. Tom Harper, who helmed The Aeronauts and Wild Rose, will direct a film that aspires to hatch a female-centric franchise with the action and global scale of films like Mission: Impossible and 007.

It is the second major deal with a streamer this week for a Skydance-generated tentpole-sized film, after Amazon acquired the Chris Pratt starrer The Tomorrow War.

The deal brings Gadot back into the Netflix fold. The actress, who just opened in Wonder Woman 1984 for WarnerMedia, will star with Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds in Netflix tentpole Red Notice, the Rawson Marshall Thurber-directed heist film.

Deadline revealed Skydance Media film in December, when David Ellison and team at Skydance signed an eight-figure deal for Gadot to star in Heart of Stone.

The script is by Greg Rucka (The Old Guard) and Allison Schroeder, the latter of whom was Oscar-nominated for Hidden Figures. The film will be produced by Skydance Media’s Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Don Granger, along with Gadot and her Pilot Wave producing partner Jaron Varsano, Bonnie Curtis and Julie Lynn.

Gadot next will star in the Kenneth Branagh-directed Death on the Nile, with Red Notice coming this year. She also has Cleopatra, the Patty Jenkins-directed period pic that Laeta Kalogridis is writing based on a story by Gadot. Paramount acquired that project in heated bidding.

Beyond The Aeronauts and Wild Rose, Harper’s directing credits include the BBC miniseries War & Peace, along with Peaky Blinders, Misfits and This Is England ’86. He also directed the pilot of AMC’s The Son.

Skydance’s upcoming films include its Paramount partnership on the Tom Cruise starrer Top Gun: Maverick, the Michael B. Jordan starrer Without Remorse, Snake Eyes and the seventh and eighth installments in the Mission: Impossible series. Skydance and Netflix made The Old Guard and 6 Underground together, and they have upcoming the Shawn Levy-directed The Adam Project with Ryan Reynolds.

Gadot is represented by WME, and Harper by UTA and 42. Rucka is repped by Inkwell Management, and Schroeder with Verve and Good Fear.