Charlize Theron Takes On Former Brad Pitt Role In Assassin Thriller ‘The Gray Man’

There’s good and bad news going on in Hollywood. Tinseltown is so far back in the stone ages that the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has to step in and is currently probing the huge inequality gap with women directors in film and television. But, the upside is things are slowly changing. The current shift and trend is the gender swap. You’ve got Marvel characters flipping gender (see Carrie Ann Moss’ role on “Jessica Jones”) and perhaps more prominently Sandra Bullock’s lead role in the upcoming political satire, “Our Brand Is Crisis” which was originally written for a man and developed for George Clooney. Has it fixed things? No, but it’s a start (the “Star Wars” universe is helping with all the female leads too).

Another gender swap is in the works over at Sony Pictures. “The Gray Man,” an assassin project that was once pegged for director James Gray and Brad Pitt, is now being tweaked for Charlize Theron, who kicked-ass and took names this summer in “Mad Max:...