EXCLUSIVE: Jessica Alba will join Hailee Steinfeld and Samuel L Jackson in RKO Pictures’ action film Barely Lethal. Highland Film Group handles international sales and will continue talks with buyers in Toronto next month.

Production is set to commence on Oct 17 with Kyle Newman directing from a screenplay by John D’Arco.

Brett Ratner and John Cheng are producing for Rat Entertainment alongside Sukee Chew for Hopscotch Pictures, Ted Hartley and RKO’s Vanessa Coifman.

Barely Lethal centres on Megan, a teenage assassin who is hunted by a former associate after she fakes her own death and enrols in a suburban high school.

Alba will play Victoria Knox, the villain of the piece who pursues Megan.

Alba will be seen in the forthcoming features A.C.O.D., Stretch, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For and Dear Eleanor and the IFC mini-series The Spoils Of Babylon.