Sam Mendes To Direct Peeping Tom Film, 'The Voyeur's Motel'

After directing the last two James Bond films, Sam Mendes expressed his desire to get out of the espionage racket. But clearly, he wasn't completely done with spying, as his next project will deal with a different kind of spy; the voyeur type. Dreamworks has inked a major deal to acquire the film rights to The Voyeur's Motel, based on the disturbing New Yorker article and upcoming book by Gay Talese.

Mendes will direct the film while joining Steven Spielberg as a producer, putting some serious muscle behind this one.  The true story centers on voyeur Gerald Foos, who in the 1960s build a Colorado motel just so he could use it to spy on its occupants. He would take detailed notes on every personal aspect of their lives, including their most intimate moments. Foos had convinced himself that his desire was justified research into humanity, but he also couldn't stop himself from getting involved. His actions in one case saw him complicit in the strangling death of a drug dealer's girlfriend.

Is Mendes returning to the unsettling suburban malaise of American Beauty? If so it would be a welcome return after he's been off in blockbuster land for so long. [Deadline]