ith the big-screen adaptation of Aeon Flux boasting Charlize Theron in the role of the title character, a brand new audience is adding their numbers to the Aeon Flux cult following.

  First introduced to the world on MTV's Liquid Television in 1991, acclaimed director Karyn Kusama's (Girlfight) vision has remained true to the gritty science fiction cartoon about a futuristic assassin, created by Korean-American animator Peter Chung, which quickly gained a cult following and spawned its own standalone series in 1995.
 
  Set 400 years in the future, Aeon Flux is about a highly trained operative of an underground organization at war with a totalitarian regime ruling what appears to be utopia. This seemingly perfect society, established when the rest of humanity was destroyed by a rampaging virus, is ruled by Aeon's sworn enemy and romantic interest, Chairman Trevor Goodchild (Marton Csokas).

  The names of the characters say it all: Flux represents discord and the freedom lost in the rigid social order; Goodchild is the stable technocratic leader who has rejected chaos. Receiving orders from her commander known only as The Handler (Theron's North Country co-star Frances McDormand), Aeon begins to unravel disturbing secrets, discovering that her idyllic existence is far more sinister than it appears.

  The appeal of the animated series had a lot to do with the challenging relationship between Flux and Goodchild, something that's been carried faithfully to the film, Csokas told SciFi Wire. "The relationship with Aeon and Trevor has gone on for a very long time� One person knows a lot more about their history than the other, which is an intriguing place to start," Csokas said.

  Intriguing characters aside, Theron said that she chose a role in an action adventure specifically to play against type after her acclaimed performance as Aileen Wuornos, a serial killing prostitute in Monster. "I don't want to go and just keep doing the same thing," she said. "I knew really nothing about the genre. And just that was enough of a challenge for me� [Plus, Kusama is] a filmmaker who I really wanted to work with."

  The physical challenges of the role, on the other hand, almost did her in. Theron injured her neck while rehearsing a stunt, forcing production to shut down for several weeks while she recuperated. Still, ever the thespian, Theron managed to turn this setback around to her benefit. "Whereas, for three months prior to starting this film, I spent a lot of time on the physical aspect," she explained, "I spent that six weeks really thinking about where this woman had to go in the story. So I just used it to my advantage."

  For all the movie's expected emphasis on sci-fi action, Theron said the film's themes transcend the genre. "The thing you can't forget when dealing with something that's futuristic is you're still dealing with the human aspect and the human spirit," she said. "You might think that something 400 years from now is really far away, but it's not. And the reality is that what's happening socially today in our world will continue."

- Rui Umezawa