She is the creative genius behind hit BBC comedy Fleabag and the last James Bond blockbuster.
And it appears Phoebe Waller-Bridge may be working on a new creation – after being spotted in north London with a folder of notes hidden under her arm.
The actress, 40, looking relaxed as she stepped out in denim dungarees in north London, raised hopes that she might be beavering away on a new script.
After all, she signed a $100million five-year deal in 2019 with Amazon following a fierce bidding war between Hollywood studios to sign her up once Fleabag’s final season had ended.
But Ms Waller-Bridge, whose partner is Martin McDonagh, 55, a British-Irish playwright and filmmaker, has so far failed to replicate that early writing success for the streaming giant.
The Crashing star’s long-awaited Tomb Raider TV series seems to have run into a wall as sources say the idea is ‘dead’.
Amazon Studios’ $100million bet on the British actress doesn’t seem to have paid off – yet – with the Fleabag creator’s scripts taking a long time to appear and then being judged not ready to shoot.
There are no signs of the series being filmed ‘in early 2025’, which was the promise from a Prime Video executive last year.
And Game Of Thrones star Sophie Turner, who was reportedly in negotiations to play Tomb Raider protagonist Lara Croft, is busy with other films for much of this year.
A spokesman for Prime Video had no comment; nor did representatives for Waller-Bridge.
Waller-Bridge got stuck into the idea of bringing Lara Croft to the small screen in 2022 and a script was delivered around the middle of last year, according to sources.
But not a single minute of broadcast content has been developed to date. The project was dealt a serious blow last week when the executive who was overseeing the project, Jennifer Salke, was booted from her role as the head of Amazon Studios.
Salke, formerly head of entertainment at NBC, was the key negotiator who signed Waller-Bridge to a staggering $20million-a-year golden handcuffs deal back in 2019, when she was in demand after Fleabag.
That deal has become one of the most notorious flubs in Hollywood – a black mark against Salke which may even have contributed to her demise.
Waller-Bridge has taken on two acting roles over the past six years – in Disney’s Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny and animated Paramount film ‘IF’.
She also contributed to the script of 2021 James Bond film No Time To Die.
She was to have written and starred in a TV reboot of the film Mr And Mrs Smith, but quit her role in 2021. Her contributions to the project were so thoroughly erased she wasn’t even given a writing credit on the show, which eventually came out starring Maya Erskine and Donald Glover.
She is, however, due to star in A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, an American fantasy film, alongside Barbie actress Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell, star of McDonagh’s The Banshees Of Inisherin and In Bruges.
Ms Waller-Bridge, who was part of the writing team on Bond movie No Time To Die, has been dating Mr McDonagh since 2017.
In a Vanity Fair interview two years ago, the actress gave a glimpse into their relationship and how they sometimes swap notes when working on scripts.
‘It’s really useful being with someone who I think is a genius, it just ups your game,’ she said.
