Ron Howard will direct “The Fixer” for Paramount Pictures, an individual with knowledge of the film told TheWrap. The director just finished production on Netflix’s “Hillbilly Elegy.”
“The Fixer,” which is based on an original pitch from Tyler Hisel, tells the true story of a disgraced FBI agent, who at the height of the Cold War, is tapped by the CIA to lead a ragtag team of CIA operatives and Chicago mobsters on an unlikely mission to try to assassinate Fidel Castro.
Hisel, who has written episodes of TV as well — including “Treadstone” and “Wayward Pines” — will also pen the script for “The Fixer.”
Imagine Entertainment will produce the film alongside Bradley Cooper and Todd Philips’ Joint Effort banner, as well as with Andrew Panay.
The director was working on his adaptation of J.D. Vance’s best-selling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.” The film, starring Gabriel Basso, Amy Adams and Glenn Close, was written by Vanessa Taylor (“The Shape of Water”). The film is a modern exploration of the American dream and three generations of an Appalachian family as told by its youngest member, a Yale Law student who is forced to return to his hometown.
Howard also had a documentary at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival called “Rebuilding Paradise” about the aftermath of the devastating 2018 Camp Fire in Northern California.
Howard and Imagine are repped by CAA, as is Joint Effort, which recently earned a best picture Oscar nomination for “Joker.” Hisel is repped by Insignia Entertainment and attorney Rob Szymanski of Eclipse Law.