In a month or so, the Brangelina brood will most likely relocate from Berlin to Los Angeles so Angelina can start principal filming on Salt, an espionage thriller she signed on to several months ago. Angelina’s casting was a minor scandal considering she replaced everybody’s favorite Xenu on a Zebra, Tom Cruise. Obviously, some necessary script changes needed be made. Angelina Jolie is good, but she can’t play a character named “Edwin Salt”. But the changes that have already been made aren’t good enough for Angelina, and someone at the studio is already leaking negative info to Britain’s Daily Mail.

After replacing Tom Cruise in a new movie, Angelina Jolie is determined to have the film made her way …or not at all. Cruise was to have played the title role in Columbia’s spy thriller Edwin A. Salt.

But negotiations broke down and Angelina, 33, was hired instead, leading to a hurried change of title to Edwina Salt. No sooner had her casting been announced than Angelina, according to a source, ordered it to be changed again, to Evelyn Salt.

Now the actress is demanding a script overhaul by top screenwriter Brian Helgeland, an Oscar winner with L.A. Confidential, who is involved in the project.

‘Angelina is determined to make sweeping changes before filming starts,’ I’m told.

‘She’s demanding the writers improve the dialogue before she sets foot on set.’

Sources say Angelina envisages Evelyn Salt as a rival to the blockbusting Bourne Identity series, starring Matt Damon.

[From The Daily Mail]

“Demanding” that a character’s name be changed from Edwina to Evelyn doesn’t seem that hardcore. Evelyn is a pretty name, and more current than Edwina. The only Edwina I’ve ever known was the character of Edwina on Absolutely Fabulous. Great, hilarious character, but not the name for an espionage thriller’s heroine. And could it be that many of the script changes are simply changing the character’s gender?

As far as trying to make Salt more like the Bourne series, it just seems like it’s in the studio’s best interests. The Bourne series was not only a huge financial win for everyone involved, but the series also re-wrote what action films could be and should be. Everybody from the producers of the James Bond movies to Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have cited the Bourne films as the best way to make a politically and entertaining “current” action film. I seriously doubt that Angelina is the only one involved in Salt who is trying to make the film more like the Bourne series in style and substance.

Angelina Jolie is shown at The Curious Case of Benjamin Button premiere on 12/8/08. Credit: PRPhotos