For a director with a million projects constantly tugging at him in different directions, the ones Philip Noyce has actually finished haven't impressed lately. It's been 6 years since his last hit, the Angelina Jolie action flick Salt, and since that time he's been occupied with various TV episodes, the forgettable HBO film Mary and Martha, and the failed YA franchise-starter, The Giver. So now Noyce is going back to a project he's been working on for years and hoping that can turn things around.
Emilia Clarke and Jack Huston are set to star in Above Suspicion, which Noyce has been developing since 2008. Adapted by Chris Gerolmo (Mississippi Burning) from Joe Sharkey's book, the true story centers on a married FBI agent assigned to an Appalachian mountain town in Kentucky. He's drawn into an illicit affair with a poor local woman who becomes his top informant. She wants him to be her means of escape, but the relationship proved to be a disaster for them both as the scandal shook the law enforcement agency to its core, leading to the FBI's first ever conviction of an agent for murder.
Shooting begins later this month, and as it hits the sales floor at Cannes it should be helped by the additions of Clarke and Huston. She's obviously in the middle of the sixth season of HBO's Game of Thrones and has the anticipated romance Me Before You coming up. Huston was last seen in Pride & Prejudice & Zombies and will lead the Ben-Hur remake. [Deadline]
