With his Jason Bourne novels becoming an unquestioned success on the silver screen, it's easy to forget that Robert Ludlum penned quite a few other books. Mostly they were enveloped in the same shroud of CIA conspiracies and shadow ops like the Bourne franchise, but few of these have ever found their way onto the desk of a willing studio executive. One exception was The Osterman Weekend, Ludlum's 1972 novel about an investigative reporter who discovers that his friends are part of a deep conspiracy that threatens national security. The book was brought to the big screen in 1983, directed by the great Sam Peckinpah. To put it mildly, the movie is terrible and poorly made, and Hollywood has been trying to fix the error for years.
Brian Kirk, the TV vet who was last seen leaving the Thor sequel gig, has agreed to direct the long gestating film. He'll be taking over for Robert Schwentke(Red), who came aboard a couple of years ago but nothing really got done after that. The script comes from Simon Kinberg(Sherlock Holmes) and Jesse Wigutow(Sweet Friggin' Daisies), so it's possible this version may be an incoherent mess also. I'll try to keep my hopes up, because the book is actually quite a bit of fun, and Peckinpah tried to capture that with his film but it went off the rails pretty early on.
It's unclear when shooting could begin, as Kirk has quite a bit on his plate. A possibility to happen first is Paper Wings, which if you'll recall is the hilarious sounding Tom Cruise/Will Smith produced drama about a bull rider who falls in love with a country singer. [Deadline]
