Fonte Comingsoon.netWarner Bros. Pictures has scooped up film rights to a book on the mysterious death of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko for Johnny Depp's Infinitum Nihil to develop, reports Variety.
As with any Infinitum project, the film about Litvinenko could be a potential starring vehicle for Depp, who has been closely following the story.
Depp will produce with Infinitum prexy Christi Dembrowski and Initial Entertainment Group president Graham King. Infinitum is an Initial Entertainment company.
The unpublished novel "Sasha's Story: The Life and Death of a Russian Spy" will be penned by New York Times London bureau chief Alan Cowell, who has been covering the story since it first broke in November.
In London, the investigation continues into the death of Litvinenko, who was poisoned in late November by polonium-210. Just before his death, he blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime for the murder.
Cowell will continue covering the story before taking a leave to write the book, which will be published by Doubleday in the U.S. and Transworld in the U.K. later this year.
Fonte Comingsoon.netColumbia Pictures and Michael Mann have entered the race against Warner Bros. and Johnny Depp to mount a film about Alexander "Sasha" Litvinenko, the ex-KGB agent who was fatally poisoned, reports Variety.
Based on a proposal and a sample chapter, Columbia paid $500,000 against $1.5 million early Friday for the screen rights to "Death of a Dissident," a book that is being co-written by Alex Goldfarb and the subject's widow, Marina Litvinenko. The book will be published in late May by the Simon & Schuster subsidiary Free Press.
Red Wagon partners Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher, who brought the project to the studio, will produce. Mann is in talks to direct. If that happens, his Forward Pass will produce as well.
The film will be an espionage thriller, exploring the collision between deep rooted Russian power structure enforced by the KGB and its successor, the FSB, and the new wave of wild west capitalism that came on the heels of Glasnost. And the way in which Litvinenko got caught between those two colossal forces. From his deathbed, Litvinenko blamed Russian president Vladimir Putin and his regime for the poisoning, ruled to be from polonium-210.
Dunque sia la "Warner Bros" che la "Columbia" sono interessate al progetto, bisogna solo attendere e vedere chi delle due riuscirà a spuntarla, quel che sembra ormai certo è che il film si farà, d'altronde, considerato il potenziale cinematografico della vicenda era inevitabile.
Tempo fa, come aveva riportato Gall in un topic, era stata avanzata la possibilità che tra gli interpreti ci fosse Daniel Craig, onestamente l'idea non mi sarebbe dispiaciuta.
Staremo a vedere.
Disclaimer: Visto e considerato che sono le 8 di Sabato mattina, date per scontato che io abbia scritto qualcosa di scontato.