was atomic blonde based on a true story
An adaptation of the graphic novel The Coldest City was announced in May 2015. Described by Variety as a ``Passion Project'' for Theron, she first came across the story five years prior, when her production company Denver and Delilah Productions was sent the then-unpublished graphic novel. Theron's interest in the first John Wick movie inspired her to get David Leitch, one of the directors, to helm the project. Leitch eventually left John Wick Chapter 2 to direct the film. According to Theron, the success of Mad Max: Fury Road helped guide the development of Atomic Blonde. The film features a bisexual subplot that was not in the original book. This came from writer Kurt Johnstad, who suggested it after Theron was ``thinking about how do you make this different from other spy movies''. Leitch has insisted that the scenes are not there to be ``provocative'', but ``more about if you are a spy you will do whatever it takes to get information'' and how the main character ``find(s) her intimacies and her friendships in small doses''.
Atomic Blonde