Neil Burger (Limitless) is slated to direct an adaptation of All The Old Knives, an upcoming spy novel from Olen Steinhauer, Deadline reports. Burger, who directed this year’s Divergent, will be directing for Chockstone Pictures, who quickly nabbed the rights for the book in April, and hired Steinhauer to write the screen version of his book.
All The Old Knives is the story of two prior lovers, one a current CIA spy and the other a former agent, who meet for dinner and begin to discuss the past. They speak on an old assignment regarding the hijacking of a Royal Jordanian Flight, which resulted in the death of everybody on board. As dinner continues, it becomes evident that one of the agents may have had a hand in the resulting failure of the mission. As tension builds, one of the former lovers may not survive the night.
Having turned down the opportunity to direct Insurgent, the sequel to the Divergent franchise, it appears that All The Old Knives is the next project on Neil Burger’s plate. The book itself is set to be released in March, and Burger has praised the novel:
Olen Steinhauer has written a fantastic, suspenseful, sophisticated drama set in the world of the CIA. As a director, I love that it’s a tightly woven puzzle, a mystery involving counter-terrorism and also a mystery of the human heart. Best of all are the two very clever and calculating characters at the center of the story who are dealing with issues of loyalty, sacrifice and a lot of sexual tension. I can’t wait to start casting them.
Steinhauer himself has also got another one of his novels brewing in pre-production, 2009’s The Tourist – not to be confused with the Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie movie of the same name. That book has drawn heaps of praise from people like Stephen King and was purchased by George Clooney’s Smokehouse Pictures.
All The Old Knives will be produced by Steve Schwartz, Paula Mae Schwartz, and Nick Wechsler.
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