Phillip Noyce‘s Salt began shooting today in Washington, D.C. I know what it is, having read the original Waldo…kidding!…having read the original Edwin A. Salt, which Tom Cruise had thought seriously about starring in. Nobody kicks big-studio thriller ass like Noyce, but I honestly believe they have to come up with a more engaging title. Salt is either abrasion and agitation (i.e., “salt in your wounds”) or something you sprinkle on chicken.

Angelina Jolie as she’ll alternately appear in Phillip Noyce’s Salt.

This USA Today story by Anthony Breznican describes Salt as a spy thriller about a rogue CIA operative who tries to clear her name after she is accused of being a Russian sleeper agent — perhaps falsely, perhaps not.” Is the reputation of the Medvedev Russian government as negative as the rep of the Russian KGB commies in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s? In a popcorn sense, I mean?