Later, it grew into a tentative favorite, even if the spy thriller is every bit a relic of the perpetually paranoid Cold War era. ), it was retooled as the potential first installment of an Angelina Jolie spy franchise. She’d established herself as a bankable action star years before she was offered the script, but her sex appeal always defined her most notable work. Directed by Phillip Noyce and initially penned by Equilibrium scribe Kurt Wimmer, Salt buries a straightforward spy thriller under layers of West-versus-East paranoia. Salt was one of a handful of movies that seemed to prove the viability of a female action star who wasn’t there to be ogled at.