Warner Bros. has hired Adam Wingard to direct “Dead Spy Running,” an international spy thriller that the studio has brought on Wingard’s partner Simon Barrett to rewrite.
Stephen Gaghan and Jamie Moss have written previous drafts, and the film’s producers, Kevin McCormick’s Langley Park and McG’s Wonderland Sound & Vision, are hoping this next project will earn the film a green light.
John Stock’s spy novels serve as the source text for the project, and the initial deal for the books called for a film franchise.
The first book in Stock’s series was published in January of 2010, the second in September of 2011 and the third this past July.
Also read: Stephen Gaghan Signs Pod Deal With Fox 21
The script chronicles Daniel Marchant, a young D.J. whose father is an MI6 agent. The father and son are estranged, but the father then comes back and is killed in front of his son.
Marchant is initially blamed for the death, and in an effort to clear his name he gets caught in the web of international espionage.
Barrett, the scribe of “Autoerotic” and “A Horrible Way to Die,” will try to finish the job Gaghan and Moss started. Wingard, who directed from several of Barrett’s scripts, would then direct.