Stephen Gaghan, the Oscar-winning writer of Traffic, has agreed to write Dead Spy Running, the spy thriller that McG is set to direct once he gets all things Terminator Salvation out of the way (we hear that someone’s still looking at the lights; it could get ugly).
Based on the book by Brit author, Jon Stock, Dead Spy Running is about a newly-trained spy who embarks upon an adventure that takes him across the globe in a bid to clear his father’s name. Well, at least that bit’s novel.
Otherwise, it’s all a bit Bourney, if you ask us, although the apparent aim is to mix the gritty textures of Bourne with the playfulness of John Le Carré’s novels. Of course, we could wonder why Stock hasn’t tried to come up with something that doesn’t mix anything that’s gone before, but we’ll leave the nitpicking for later.
Gaghan’s presence on board the project lends it a veneer of class, though. The writer-director is currently in development on the thriller, Blink, but presumably he’s got time to bash out the **Dead Spy Running **script.
As for McG, **Terminator Salvation **continues to look good, so our optimism levels for this are a lot higher than they would have been a year ago. Fingers crossed, eh?
Warner Bros. is stumping up the cash for this one, with the hope that it will form part of – you guessed it – a trilogy.