Yahoo Movies First look at Mary Elizabeth Winstead as an assassin in Netflix action-thriller Kate
In Netflix's Japan-set action-thriller Kate, Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays a killer with a big problem.
"Kate is a ruthless assassin who is on a job in Tokyo, and she gets poisoned," Winstead tells EW. "She finds out she has 24 hours to live before the poison kills her, so she sets out on a mission to find out who poisoned her and kill them before she dies. Along the way, she forges this bond with this teenage girl named Ani (Miku Martineau), and they end up taking on this mission together. It's a heartfelt, brutal, assassin story!"
According to director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan (The Huntsman: Winter's War), the toughest of the film's action set-pieces to film was a close-quarters face-off between Winstead's hitwoman and a similarly dangerous character played by the Japanese actor and musician Miyavi.
"The hardest one to shoot was the one with Mary and Miyavi inside the apartment," says the filmmaker. "We couldn't shoot that with stunt doubles, so they had to do it themselves. You had two actors that are doing very, very close-contact stunt work. We thought something bad could happen there. This one was definitely making me nervous."
The film costars Woody Harrelson as Kate's handler.
"Woody is Woody," says Nicolas-Troyan. "He's an adventure in itself, for sure. But he's very committed and he is super easy to work with. He gives that swagger to that character. He wasn't on the set for very long but we made it count."
The cast of Kate also includes Tadanobu Asano, Michiel Huisman, and Jun Kunimura. The film is written by Umair Aleem and produced by Bryan Unkeless, Kelly McCormick, and Patrick Newall.
Netflix is releasing Kate globally in Fall 2021.
See first look images from Kate above and below:
Jasin Boland/Netflix Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Kate
Jasin Boland/Netflix
Netflix
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