He racks them up and knocks them down: we already knew that Paul Greengrass' immediate next project is the Somali pirates docudrama A Captain's Duty, but he's now set to follow it immediately with [Fear Index**, based on Robert Harris' financial thriller](http://it's out in September in the UK and early next year in the US. ).
Harris' novel isn't even published yet, but Fox snapped up the rights very early; the author had only written six chapters when the studio got interested. Greengrass has been rumoured for the megaphone since the summer, but it's only just been confirmed, first by Harris himself, and subsequently by some Deadline fact-checking.
According to the blurb,** Fear Index** involves scientist Dr Alex Hoffman, who has invented a revolutionary artificial inteligence software that can flawlessly predict stock-market fluctuations through tracking human emotions (sounds a bit like a lower-level version of Asimov's psychohistory). Hoffman's Geneva-based hedge fund makes billions off the back of his system, but a slide into paranoia and violence begins when his home security is breached by a mysterious intruder, threatening both his family and the global financial markets. It's fear on a micro and macro level! Fox, you may use that on your poster.
Harris, who was last adapted for the screen in Polanski's classy political thriller The Ghost, is writing the script himself, with Peter Chernin (Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes) producing for his own Chernin Entertainment. The novel is published by Hutchinson on September 29 in the UK, and early next year in the States.