With Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie likely to break the Fox bank, the studio has opted to spin-off, rather than sequelize, the duo’s 2005 hit “Mr and Mrs Smith”.

The new film – which, for all intents and purposes, will be akin to one of those DTV ‘in-name-only’ sequels – said to be called “Mr and Mrs Jones”, will “serve as an origin story about a similar but differently named couple, showing how a pair of twentysomething spies are set up as a fake married couple when they graduate agency training”, says Vulture.

“Batman & Robin” hack turned Oscar Winner Akiva Goldmsan (“The Da Vinci Code”) will produce.

A couple of years ago Martin Henderson and Bridgette Wilson reprised Pitt and Jolie’s roles, respectively, in a TV pilot spin-off of “Mr and Mrs Smith”. ABC passed on the series though. Til this day, the pilot has never seen the light of day.