Smelling a potential franchise in the making, Warner Bros. has been trying hard to find someone to direct an adaptation of Dead Spy Running, the first book in John Stock's series of Danny Marchant action novels. Most recently it was Jonathan Levine(50/50) in talks for the job, with Stephen Gaghan and McG also in the running previously. But now it appears the studio has found their man, and it's certainly an unexpected choice.
Deadline reports that horror auteur Adam Wingard will direct the film, bringing along his writing partner Simon Barrett to work up a new draft of the script. Wingard is part of the impressive line-up of horror directors in the V/H/S anthology currently available On Demand, and he previously directed You're Next and A Horrible Way to Die. The latter of which is one of the best stalker flicks you're likely going to find, and won a number of awards when it played at Fantastic Fest a couple of years ago.
The premise of Dead Spy Running is stupid as hell, but might make for a better movie than the plot indicates. Basically it follows Danny Marchant, a club DJ who must go on the run when he's framed for the murder of his MI6 agent father. Going on the run with a sexy special agent, Danny travels the globe to not only clear his name but also get revenge for his father, all the while never forgetting his DJ background. Yeah, whatever.
If done right, this could be a lot of fun, and I trust Wingard and Barrett to take an unconventional approach to the espionage genre.
