When we last saw Rami Malek in spy thriller territory, he was very much the villain, threatening Daniel Craig's 007 and the world in general in No Time To Die. But for a potential future film, he could be on the other side other moral spectrum, albeit with a vengeful bent. Malek is attached to star in The Amateur, which has Slow Horses director James Hawes also aboard.
Gary Spinelli wrote the most recent draft of the script, which follows a CIA cryptographer, who after his wife is tragically killed in a London terrorist attack, demands his bosses go after them. When it becomes clear they won’t act due to conflicting internal priorities, he blackmails the agency into training him and letting him go after them himself.
Malek will next be seen in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer and is aboard a miniseries about the life and career of Buster Keaton.
Hawes, meanwhile has an extensive directorial CV outside of handling the first (excellent) season of Slow Horses – he's also worked on Black Mirror, Raised By Wolves, Penny Dreadful and Doctor Who, to name just a few. If The Amateur comes together, it would mark his second cinematic gig, following One Life, which stars Helena Bonham Carter and Anthony Hopkins.