As American Sniper keeps the concept of sharpshooters and their political/emotional ramifications in the spotlight, Sony is looking to get in on the action. The studio has snapped up a deal for Non-Stop’s Jaume Collet-Serra to direct a Sheldon Turner script based on a series of novels called Sniper Elite.
And the American Sniper connections are deep on this one, since the books were written by Scott McEwan, who co-wrote Chris Kyle’s original tome with Jim DeFelice.
Turner will fashion a story that finds a team of elite former Special Forces officers led by a Navy SEAL sniper acting under the orders of the Pentagon to track down a nuclear suitcase and the madman who plans to use it within the US. It’s the second of three books written by McEwen with Thomas Koloniar, all featuring the sniper character Gil Shannon. So there will likely less emotional fallout and more high stakes action in this one, and we doubt it’ll be sending anyone to the Oscars. Still, with the books already at trilogy level, Sony will clearly be hoping this could spur a new franchise.
Collet-Sera’s latest, Run All Night, features perennial collaborator Liam Neeson, and is out on March 13.