Hanna sets sights on Saoirse

Ireland’s own Saoirse Ronan is set to follow up her star making role in Peter Jackson adaptation of The Lovely Bones by playing an assassin. Ronan will reteam with Atonement director Joe Wright as the lead in his next movie Hanna, for Focus Features.

Undoubtedly the new movie will be compared to the likes of Alias, Leon and the forth-coming Kick Ass, but writers Seth Lochhead and David Farr are aiming for a more La Femme Nikita/Bourne feel in their red-hot script.

The plot has Hanna as “an Eastern European killing machine bred in a CIA prison camp” and reportedly hiding out with a French family, befriending their daughter and “suffering the pangs of adolescence”. So emotions and action met in a heady mix.

Shooting is set to take place later this year so we’re probably looking at a early/mid 2011 release.