Michelle Rodriguez to Star As a Transgender Assassin in ‘Tomboy’
Michelle Rodriguez is set to star as a transgender assassin in the action film "Tomboy, a Revenger's Tale."
The Walter Hill-directed movie will showcase the Dominican-Puerto Rican actress as "an ace assassin who is double-crossed by gangsters and falls into the hands of [a] rogue surgeon known as 'The Doctor,' who turns him into a woman," The Hollywood Reporter wrote. Now a hitwoman, she begins seeking for vengeance with the help of a nurse named Johnnie, who is also keeping secrets.
Sigourney Weaver stars alongside Rodriguez and will portray the doctor who will perform the gender reassignment surgery, The Hollywood Reporter added.
The film bows in Vancouver, Canada on Nov. 9, the news outlet wrote. Said Ben Said and Michel Merkt of SBS are producing the project. The Solution Entertainment Group, co-founded by Lisa Wilson and Myles Nestel, is handling the movie's international sales, while ICM is standing for the project's North American rights. Shooting will kick off in Vancouver in November.
The movie initially gained buzz at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and previously involved Freida Pinto. The actress, however, is no longer with the production, The Hollywood Reporter noted.
Rodriguez, 37, previously starred in the "Resident Evil" installments, the "Machete" movies, "Avatar," and in the "Fast and Furious" franchise, the news outlet listed.
'Tomboy' Slammed by LGBT Association
Criticisms already rained down on the film. A spokesperson for GLAAD, formerly known as the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said producers chose an inappropriate storyline for the project. "Tomboy" comes just as Hollywood is being pressured to change its negative portrayal of the LGBT community, The Guardian wrote.
"We haven't read the script, but it's disappointing to see film-makers turning what is a life-saving medical procedure for transgender people into a sensationalistic plot device," the organization's director of programs for transgender media, Nick Adams, told The Hollywood Reporter. "We are at a crucial moment in the public's understanding of transgender issues, and stories like these have the potential to undermine the progress we've worked so hard to achieve."
Other films that the organization disapproved of are "Ted 2," "Get Hard," and "The Wolf of Wall Street," which, according to the group, used homophobic jokes at the expense of LGBT characters, a separate report from The Guardian added. According to the group, there are no gay characters included in more than 80 percent of the 102 major studio movies released in 2014.
GLAAD also said that Hollywood is falling behind making TV shows that fairly represent LGBT people, such as "Orange is the New Black," "Transparent," and "Modern Family," the news outlet wrote.