10 years between Jolies for Salt director

Angelina Jolie as possible CIA double agent Evelyn Salt. (inset) director Phillip Noyce on the set. Photo / Supplied

Salt represents a multiple return for veteran Australian director Phillip Noyce. Firstly, to spy thrillers, having helmed the Tom Clancy adaptations Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger starring Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan.

Secondly to Angelina Jolie, who he directed before in The Bone Collector shortly before her star went global. And thirdly a return to Hollywood, after his trio of personal political films in The Quiet American, Rabbit-Proof Fence and Catch a Fire.

Salt casts Jolie as possible CIA double agent Evelyn Salt in a role that was first designed for Tom Cruise. The film's story is about Russian sleeper spies in the US still awaiting their mission instructions long after the end of the Cold War. The movie arrived on American screens just as a ring of Russian agents was busted in New York and sent home. When the movie's screenwriter told him the news, Noyce thought he was being pranked.

He laughs that it sure took care of any questions about his movie trying to revive an old bogeyman. Still, Lara Croft-meets-Jason Bourne? A few more questions occur ...

The CIA sure has changed since Jack Ryan's day.

Oh it has, yeah. But it's mainly changed because of the change in enemy.

But this has the old enemy as the new enemy.

I don't think that enemy ever went away, as recent history has shown us. The Cold War was such a long and bitter ideological conflict. It brought the Soviet Union to its knees through misguided expenditure on achieving a military edge. And we know from the arrest of those 11 Russians in New York City there are Russian sleeper spies out there, so I don't think it is unreasonable to speculate there are a lot of deep cover spies left over working for both sides from the dark days of the Cold War.

The movie's name is a good Cold War reference [SALT and SALT II were acronyms for Strategic Arms Limitation Talks which prefaced treaties between the US and USSR]. Especially as any sequel would be Salt II ...

Originally when I joined it was called Edwin A. Salt. So we changed the name of the character from Edwin to Evelyn. I think Sony decided that the word "Salt" would be enigmatic to invite speculation by the audience. It's also cheaper on the marquees.

And it's what you put on your popcorn.

Exactly.

How seriously should you take this movie?

Hopefully not too seriously if you don't want to. Although it has a basis in reality combined with an extremely escapist-type story, and I think that is what I found interesting - the way the movie combined the two.

You signed on to the film when Evelyn was still Edwin?

When I joined, which was about two years ago, there wasn't an actor attached and we approached and flirted with Tom Cruise, who, for a while considered the part before deciding it was in conflict with Ethan Hunt - the character for Mission:Impossible. And of course he had plans, as he still does, to make another Mission:Impossible and he felt Edwin Salt would be in conflict with Ethan Hunt. So he declined our invitation. That is when in desperation we thought it might be a good idea to give Edwin a sex change so we sent the script to Angelina Jolie and she immediately responded.

It would be a different person you were directing 10 years after The Bone Collector?

She had superficial differences. She was almost completely unknown then. But possibly because of all the distractions she was even more focused than she was as a youngster. The other thing that didn't change was that this is a woman who has the will to entertain in her blood, so it's not a job to her. She would do it for free I am sure. She wants to act, she wants to entertain, she wants to put on a show, and that kind of enthusiasm comes through in the movie.

While she might do it for free, she does have a large family to feed

She does. We all find our ways.

And for you this is a return to Big Hollywood.

There are some party invitations that you just can't turn down. That's the way I felt when I was invited to come back into the summer American movie contest where the studios line up all their big guns and do battle against each other. So being the ringmaster in one of those circuses can be awfully stressful, but it is also highly enjoyable.

So who would take who in a fight - Ethan Hunt or Evelyn Salt?

Evelyn has the same kind of close quarter Israeli army fighting style as Ethan, so it would be, for a moment, a close contest. But what Evelyn has is that she's been trained since she was a very tender age to do what she does, and she has muay thai which is a Thai fighting style. Those are the kind of tricks that would give her the edge.

And should there be a Salt 2, might she bump into Kevin Costner from No Way Out [Costner's US navy officer was revealed to be a Soviet spy] coming the other way?

That is a real possibility.

LOWDOWN

Who: Phillip Noyce, director of Salt starring Angelina Jolie
When and where: Opens at cinemas today
-TimeOut