Moshe Diamant´s Signature Pictures has made a deal to finance Amazon, a vehicle for Scarlett Johansson to play a gladiatrix from 200 B.C. who exacts vengeance on an army that destroyed her homeland. Variety says that Dirk Blackman and Howard McCain will write the script.

The trade adds that the idea for Johansson to play an Amazon warrior came from the actress, who mentioned it to screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci while they worked together on The Island. That duo will produce with Melanie Johansson, Gilles Arondeau and Alexandra Milchan-Lambert.

They drafted Blackman and McCain, who just wrote Outlander, a period Viking saga that McCain will direct for Ascendant Pictures and The Weinstein Co.; production on that project starts next June in New Zealand.

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