Emma Watson Will Continue to be Awesome in ‘Colonia’

By  · Published on September 29th, 2014

Emma Watson Will Continue to be Awesome in ‘Colonia’

Emma Watson in This is the End

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.

If it wasn’t clear by recent, real life events, Emma Watson has always been, and probably always will be a bonafide badass. Speaking out at the United Nations in the name of gender equality and the fight for feminism is an incredible accomplishment that took guts and candor that many don’t possess.

In the world of film, Watson has an undeniable track record of that same, extreme level of confidence and bravado. Girl’s going places and she’s not letting anyone stop her. That was clearly solidified in her childhood when she stepped into the wizarding world of the Harry Potter series and schooled everyone around her for a subsequent eight films. Hermione Granger is lauded as the brainy sidekick of the hero of the saga, a clever witch who does her homework and gets things done in order to help the gang succeed toward their next mission.

But as we’ve established, she’s so much more – she’s the brains behind the whole operation, the real one in charge. Does anybody truly think the war could’ve finally been won, and everybody could have had that happy future resolution with their questionable age makeup and Hogwarts-bound children without Hermione Granger?

Of course, it didn’t end with Potter. Watson’s other roles have afforded her a bevy of badassedness. In My Week with Marilyn, she isn’t exactly fighting evil incarnate with her magic powers, but as Lucy, she’s someone who is assertive and secure enough to ditch a boyfriend who’s ignoring her to flirt with Marilyn Monroe. Nobody needs that in their life. In This Is the End, she plays a version of herself who retaliates against a hapless group of slackers who she thinks are going to attack her, by stealing all of their supplies during the apocalypse. Good on you, Watson.

So it’s fitting that she’s set to headline Colonia, a thriller set during the 1973 Chilean military coup, opposite Daniel Brühl. The story, based on true events, concerns a young woman (Watson), whose boyfriend (Bruhl) is abducted by Pinochet’s secret police. She tracks him down to a sealed-off part of the country called Colonia Dignidad, which she is told is a charitable mission run by a lay preacher named Paul Shafer. But in actuality, it’s a cult from which there’s no escape. In order to find the missing boyfriend, she signs up.

How great it’s going to be to hear more plot details so we know just a little bit more about how she does pulls the rescue off. Shame on you if you say magic.

Colonia sounds like another chance for Watson to do what she does best. The role seems like a chance for her to take what she’s been honing and bring it to a place with more maturity, as well. She’s still fresh in her career, and with something like this thriller in her repertoire, where she’s involved in something high risk, political and adventurous, it’s a new opening for her to explore. Harry Potter who?

The film is co-written and will be directed by Florian Gallenberger, an Oscar winner for the live-action short Quiero ser (I want to be…), who later helmed the features Honolulu and John Rabe – both also starring Brühl.