Daisy Ridley to play trailblazing spy Virginia Hall in new movie

Daisy Ridley is to play super-spy Virginia Hall in a new film.

The Star Wars: The Force Awakens star is attached to play the pioneering spy in an adaptation of Sonia Purnell's forthcoming biography titled A Woman of No Importance, reports Deadline.

Paramount Pictures has acquired rights to the book, and the project is set up with Bad Robot, J.J. Abrams' production company. A screenwriter or director is yet to be announced.

The book tells of Hall's life as an heiress and accomplished spy, detailing her attempt to join the ranks of the American Foreign Service in the time leading up to World War II.

But the Baltimore native was rejected by the organization due to her gender, and also her disability, as she had lost part of her leg in a previous hunting accident.

Hall was employed during the war by the British intelligence unit SOE, and later served the American Office of Strategic Services and its successor, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Purnell is a veteran journalist whose previous books include Just Boris, about British politician Boris Johnson, and Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill. Addressing the A Woman of No Importance News on Twitter on Tuesday (24Jan17), she wrote, "Finally my sons think what I do is a bit cool!"

Ridley is certainly being kept busy as she's attached to star in Lionsgate's movie Chaos Walking and the indie film Ophelia. She's currently filming Kenneth Branagh's updated version of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, and has already completed work on the Peter Rabbit movie, as well as Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which is slated for release in December (17).