He's back on our screens this week as Scott "Ant-Man" Lang in Captain America: Civil War, but for a future film, Paul Rudd is looking at a true-life tale set during the very real World War II, The Catcher Was A Spy.
The Sessions' Ben Lewin is aboard to direct a script written by Robert Rodat, a man with no little experience writing stories set during the period given Saving Private Ryan. Here, he adapts Nicholas Dawidoff's non-fiction bestseller about Moe Berg, an accomplished college graduate who spoke nine languages and spent 15 years as a player on baseball teams including the Chicago White Sox. What his teammates didn't know was that his sports career was a cover for his life as a top secret spy for America's pre-CIA intelligence agency the OSS, and he helped America win the arms race against Germany.
Despite the compelling narrative, this is a project that has lurked in development for years, with various companies trying to fashion a take on the story. Warner Bros. thought George Clooney might end up playing the lead, but now PalmStar Media has the rights and Rudd the role.
With Civil War due in UK cinemas (and out in the States on May 6), Rudd will also be heard in animated raunch-fest Sausage Party and will star for Duncan Jones in his new sci-fi project, Mute. Incidentally, you can find out more about that in the latest Empire, which has just hit all good and evil newsagents.