What do you do when your usual job – say, being part of the team that writes the current crop of Bond movies – is off the table thanks to the financial issues of the company that produces them? If you’re Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, you grab hold of an original action thriller idea{
Working from concept dreamt up by producers Michael Lieber and Walter Parkes, the pair is crafting an untitled film that unfolds among West Africa’s nomadic Taureg tribes, in an area that just happens to be rich in uranium. Naturally, the place is a hot zone for both energy companies and terrorist types, and an American anthropologist has to dive into the situation, heading back to the Sahara to help out a former research subject who has found himself at the centre of a terrorist threat.
“At its heart, this is an action movie set within a world that is morally complex, alluring and completely real - which is why Robert and Neal, whose work spans James Bond to John Le Carre, are uniquely suited to bring a project like this to life,” Parkes tells the Risky Business blog.
The research should at least be sound – Lieber is a former cultural anthropologist who did fieldwork in Africa before moving on to become a producer. There’s no word on a studio getting involved yet, but with the Parkes/McDonald overseeing the film, expect it to generate some interest.