Since last year’s excellent and undervalued "Captain Phillips," Paul Greengrass has been keeping a low profile when it comes to new projects. In January he was attached to the cyber-espionage thriller "The Director," and now he’s been linked to another true life political drama.
Sony Pictures has snapped up Morten Storm, Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister‘s "Agent Storm: My Life Inside Al Qaeda," with Scott Rudin producing and Greengrass to direct. The forthcoming book will hit stores in September, and tells the remarkable story of a Western jihadist who defects and becomes a double agent. Here’s the book synopsis:
He was the Western convert who would plunge deep inside al-Qaeda. He named his first son Osama after 9/11 and became a Jihadist. But then – after a sudden loss of faith – Morten Storm made a life-changing decision. He became a double agent for the CIA, MI6 and MI5.
Filled with hair-raising close calls and duplicity, Storm’s story builds to the climactic finale when he must betray his friend and mentor al-Awlaki – al-Qaeda’s biggest threat to the West. Storm is trusted to find al-Awlaki a wife from Europe. She becomes the bait for a possible American drone strike . . .
This production is right in Greengrass’ wheelhouse, but the project is just getting into development now and needs a screenwriter.
In other news, over the weekend at Comic-Con, Legendary announced that their 2016 event movie will be "King Kong: Skull Island." The problem? They need a director. And so they’ve put out an offer to Joe Cornish, the man behind "Attack The Block." The filmmaker has expressed a reluctance to jump into blockbusters (his name had been tossed around for fare like "A Good Day To Die Hard" and "Star Trek 3"), and he’s already attached to "Section 6" and "Snow Crash" (though the latter seems to be stuck in development hell). Frankly, we won’t be shocked if Cornish declines the gig. [Deadline/Deadline]