Morgan Freeman Photo: IC

The American actor is in talks for a key part in Lucy, the French director's upcoming thriller, reveals thewrap.com.

Morgan Freeman is in the running to play an eminent evolutionary scientist in this suspenseful picture written by Luc Besson himself and starring Scarlett Johansson.

After reprising her Marvel comics role as the Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff in the upcoming superhero blockbuster Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the American actress will play a young woman forced to serve as a mule for a drug racket.

An accidental absorption of some of the experimental drug she is carrying boosts her physical and mental powers tenfold - but it also puts her in mortal danger. Lucy's only hope is to get medical treatment from a professor specializing in evolutionary effects on the brain.

Following in the footsteps of Milla Jovovich (The Fifth Element, Joan of Arc), Anne Parillaud (Nikita) and Louise Bourgoin (The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec), Scarlett Johansson will soon be joining the ranks of Luc Besson's heroines.

Besson will start shooting Lucy later this year when the actress is released from the set of the Avengers sequel. In the meantime, he'll be coming out this fall with The Family (also known as Malavita), a mafia action comedy starring Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer.

AFP