Jennifer Lawrence reunites with Hunger Games: Catching Fire (aka The Best One) Francis Lawrence director for action thriller Red Sparrow.

Following in the footsteps of last year’s Atomic Blonde and Luc Besson’s classic Nikita, J-Law stars as a former prima ballerina recruited into a secret government outfit that specialises in training those of a certain disposition into highly trained assassins. Well, the organisation in question has a strict recruitment policy by offering candidates death or be trained as a Sparrow. On this occasion, cake isn’t an option.

The first teaser didn’t do much for me, it looked like a fairly standard espionage type thriller, but the second promo has upped the brutality to unexpected levels, and I’m not sure what to think. I don’t know why, but I thought this would be a 12A (PG-13) friendly movie for maximum J-law fan appeal. Turns out I was way off.

Also starring Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Charlotte Rampling, Mary-Louise Parker, Ciarán Hinds, and Jeremy Irons, Red Sparrow is released in the UK on March 2.

Here’s the official synopsis;

Dominika Egorova is many things. A devoted daughter determined to protect her mother at all costs. A prima ballerina whose ferocity has pushed her body and mind to the absolute limit. A master of seductive and manipulative combat.

When she suffers a career-ending injury, Dominika and her mother are facing a bleak and uncertain future. That is why she finds herself manipulated into becoming the newest recruit for Sparrow School, a secret intelligence service that trains exceptional young people like her to use their bodies and minds as weapons. After enduring the perverse and sadistic training process, she emerges as the most dangerous Sparrow the program has ever produced. Dominika must now reconcile the person she was with the power she now commands, with her own life and everyone she cares about at risk, including an American CIA agent who tries to convince her he is the only person she can trust.