By Director Jonathan Levine is on a hot streak at the moment following the critical and financial success of his indie comedy 50/50. He has zombie movie Warm Bodies lined up for release next year, but is taking advantage of his time in the spotlight by entering into talks to direct Dead Spy Running, a thriller based on John Stock’s novel. The movie was originally set to be directed by Terminator: Salvation‘s McG, who subsequently handed the project over to scriptwriter Stephen Gaghan, who in turn departed due to scheduling difficulties.
The novel, which is obviously the first in a trilogy (is anything NOT part of a trilogy these days?), sees a disgraced British spy deciding to run the London Marathon, only to discover that one of his competitors is strapped with explosives which will detonate if his pace drops. Is it just me, or does that sound like an on-foot rehash of that Keanu Reeves movie, The Bus That Couldn’t Slow Down? Anyway, reviews say the novel was fairly decent, McG has some spy geek cred thanks to his exec producing Chuck for NBC, and Levine is a director on the rise. It doesn’t sound like much of anything, but maybe there’s hope for it to come together in the right hands.
[via EMPIRE]