Susanna White to Direct John Le Carre's 'Our Kind of Traitor'

The pot-boiling espionage novels of John Le Carre are hot properties around Hollywood right now, especially coming off the most recent version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. After its three Oscar nominations, including one for star Gary Oldman, talk immediately turned to which Le Carre books would be adapted next. Anton Corbijn has A Most Wanted Man arriving later his year, and William Monahan is working on A Delicate Truth. \Movement also began on Our Kind of Traitor with Justin Kurzel (Snowtown) coming aboard to direct, but now that Michael Fassbender's Macbeth is keeping him busy, he's dropped out and has been replaced by Susanna White.

White, who last helmed the BBC miniseries Parade's End, will direct based on a script by Hossein Amini (Drive). Ewan McGregor was circling one of the lead roles, an Oxford professor who along with his lawyer girlfriend get mixed up with a British intelligence operation involving a money-laundering Russian mob boss. According to the DailyMail producers still have a "mutual attraction" with McGregor for it, but its unclear if others rumored for the film, such as Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain, remain interested.We can probably count on Chastain being out of the picture as the search is on for someone to play the "kick-ass" girlfriend.

Look for filming to begin in the first half of 2014.