Netflix Action Movie 'Kate' Will Have Mary Elizabeth Winstead Playing A Poisoned Assassin

Someone poisoned Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and now she's going to kill them. In a movie, that is. Winstead will star in the Netflix action movie Kate, about a female assassin on the hunt for the person that poisoned her. This premise is reminiscent of Crank, but with Mary Elizabeth Winstead instead of Jason Statham. Which actually sounds amazing.

Variety broke the news about Kate, the new Mary Elizabeth Winstead action movie headed to Netflix. The film "revolves around a female assassin, who, after being poisoned and given less than 24 hours to live, must go on a manhunt through the streets of Tokyo to take vengeance on her murderer before she dies." Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, director of The Huntsman: Winter's War (remember that?), will helm. Umair Aleem, writer of the still-unmade Danger Girl movie, penned the script. Netflix has had this project since 2017, after winning it in a bidding war.

This plot – dying assassin goes on a quest for revenge – is, as I said above, highly similar to the Jason Statham gonzo action film Crank. This isn't a complaint, just an observation. If Kate has half the energy of Crank, and lets Winstead go wild, I'm all for it. The actress is certainly taking her career into new directions. She's been working steadily for some time now, but mostly in smaller, quirkier films, with the occasional big title here and there. Now, she's set to appear in the DC film Birds of Prey, as well as the Will Smith/Ang Lee film Gemini Man. And now she has Kate to add to the mix. All of this is good news, because Winstead is talented, and the more roles she lands the better.

Birds of Prey producer Bryan Unkeless will produce Kate with Deadpool 2 producer Kelly McCormick, and Patrick Newall. David Leitch, the director behind John Wick, Atomic Blonde and Hobbs and Shaw, will executive produce along with Scott Morgan. This is a prodigious lineup for a Netflix title, proving once again that the streaming service has become a major player in the industry that more and more influential filmmakers are gravitating towards.

Production on Kate is expected to begin this fall.