While Mike Newell is busily talking about directing Great Expectations, it would appear that that’s not the only project he’s considering. He’s been attached to and developing an adaptation of Ben Macintyre’s non-fiction tome Agent Zigzag for some time. Now comes word from Deadline that Brighton Rock writer/director Rowan Joffe is on board to take a fresh pass at the script, on which Newell had been collaborating with Race to Witch Mountain’s Mark Bomback.
Macintyre’s 2007 book chronicled the real-life adventures of Eddie Chapman, a chancer, petty criminal and smooth charmer who became a double agent working for both Britain and Germany during World War Two. One of his MI5 handlers at the time wrote, “The Germans came to love Chapman. But although he went cynically through all the forms, he did not reciprocate. Chapman loved himself, loved adventure, and loved his country, probably in that order.”
Sounds like a plum role for a young actor, and indeed his story has been filmed at least once before, as 1966’s Triple Cross, which saw Christopher Plummer acting as Chapman.