Swingers director Doug Liman has lined up a new project for him to take on called The Tourist, which is one of several books in a series written by Olen Steinhauer. Sony Pictures just acquired the rights to these books, which includes The Tourist, Nearest Exit and An American Spy.
The books center on a character named Milo Weaver, "a burned-out spy for a clandestine U.S. intelligence agency that battles global organized crime, terrorists and the like. Just when he has finally found some happiness, an investigation into the death of a hired killer he’d been hunting threatens to ruin everything."
Sounds like a great project for Liman, who is currently shooting Warner Bros. All You Need Is Kill with Tom Cruise. Liman has also directed films such as Go, Jumper, The Bourne Identity and Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
I've never read any of these books, but they sound like it could be a solid movie. Have you read any of these books, and do you think Liman is a good choice to direct it? What's your favorite movie that Liman has made?
Here's the description of the The Tourist:
Milo Weaver used to be a “tourist” for the CIA—an undercover agent with no home, no identity—but he’s since retired from the field to become a middle-level manager at the CIA’s New York headquarters. He’s acquired a wife, a daughter, and a brownstone in Brooklyn, and he’s tried to leave his old life of secrets and lies behind. However, when the arrest of a long-sought-after assassin sets off an investigation into one of Milo’s oldest colleagues and exposes new layers of intrigue in his old cases, he has no choice but to go back undercover and find out who’s holding the strings once and for all.
In The Tourist, Olen Steinhauer---twice nominated for an Edgar Award---tackles an intricate story of betrayal and manipulation, loyalty and risk in an utterly compelling novel that is both thoroughly modern and yet also reminiscent of the espionage genre’s luminaries: Len Deighton, Graham Greene, and John LeCarré.