Michelle Rodriguez plays both male and female roles in new film

Michelle Rodriguez will play both a man and woman in her new film Tomboy. Photo / Getty

Fast and the Furious actress Michelle Rodriguez will play both a male and female in her next film.

The actress starts out as a hitman who undergoes gender reassignment surgery to exact revenge on gangsters who double-crossed him in Tomboy, A Revenger's Tale, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

A surgeon, known as The Doctor, will be played by Sigourney Weaver in the new thriller directed by Walter Hill.

But the film has already had some resistance from US organisation GLAAD, formerly the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, for its use of gender reassignment as a plot device.

"We haven't read the script, but it's disappointing to see filmmakers turning what is a life-saving medical procedure for transgender people into a sensationalistic plot device," GLAAD 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," he said.

The movie is due to start filming in Vancouver, Canada on November 9.

- AP