I would think the female lead would be an FBI grunt / Marshall looking for a promotion who realizes she must bend a few rules to obtain the necessary clearance to execute her objectives... namely...

Therefore, she 'saves,' Griffin... by kidnapping him -

Perhaps she's looking to work for the Department of Justice and dubs Griffin, as the ultimate hacker, to be a 'Witness Protection,' expert...

Just one humble request... if you are going to have female heroes in the production, could at least one of them not look like a model to start with? She could be attractive as in having a great personality without needing to be a classical beauty. Just think of the typical messy jeans and t-shirt IT-girl who nobody would ever notice at the office.

Eventually, she may need to dress up in order to achieve her purposes... look pretty to pass as dumb and such obtain information she needs. The older trick of the world perhaps, but I dare anyone claim it does not work. ;)

I heard about Nazis using control over switchboards in occupied territories, namely France, to ferret out the resistance networks. Can't find a citation, would appreciate. Who knows who calls whom, knows most of the topology of the social networks in the area. That's the purpose of the comm data retention now enforced in EU, retrospectively ferreting out recent associations. (Bleh. Imagine what such an occupying force could do with those data today.)

Relying primarily on the central idea is the major strength of Clarke's novels. Little distraction with the characters, low to no dependence on the reader being able to correctly remember all the character-related fluff.

I'm 99.9% sure I've seen a film from the 1940s where a telephone operator solves a murder based on the calls she has to put through. I can't remember its name or anyone involved with it though so I can't provide any links... But it's a very interesting idea for a film.

"She would naturally be very intelligent and attractive"

Erm... why?

"Great writing does not have to rely on this theme. One of the best examples are the works of Arthur C. Clarke."

With all due respect to Sir Arthur, he isn't very good at dialogue or characters though, his novels depend almost entirely on their central ideas.

...also, for more realistic angle, if this theme HAS to be used, what about making Griffin win the case but fail miserably in getting the girl, and letting her fall for somebody else (preferably off-camera)?

Why oh why does a relationship problematics have to be shoehorned into every single movie on the planet? Not everybody enjoys having to watch that.

Great writing does not have to rely on this theme. One of the best examples are the works of Arthur C. Clarke.

... "Bond also got his reward in the end inevitably"

Guys, lets try to NOT to be a bunch of sexist jerks here, right? Please.

Any of the characters as per profession/role could be female - sure tech is a male dominated profession but for the love of all things shiny, do NOT define the female characters as per their relationships to the males. DON'T fall into the shallow love interest trap.