Like its hero dashing around the world in an attempt to both clear his name and stop a terrorist bent on destroying Western civilization, the adaptation of John Stock’s Dead Spy Running has bounced around various directors and writers since being optioned in 2008. Now Warners is handing it to horror duo Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett to take a crack.
The directing / writing team (seen above with actress Sharni Vinson) has been known for their scares to date, including micro budget effort** A Horrible Way To Die**, then** Autoerotic** and You’re Next, which was picked up after a triumphant debut at last year’s Toronto Film Festival. They were also part of the team behind anthology terror piece V/H/S, the trailer for which can be seen below.
Now Warners is hoping they can inject some new momentum in Dead Spy Running, which finds DJ-turned-agent Danny Marchant forced to go on the run after the CIA targets him as a traitor – and that’s after he’s saved the American ambassador from a suicide bomber during the London Marathon (a detail which is awfully close to Four Lions, so we imagine that might get tweaked).
Stock’s novel – the first of a planned trilogy – was originally optioned as a possible project for McG, who then passed it on Stephen Gaghan to re-write and potentially direct. 50/50**’s Jonathan Levine was offered the megaphone earlier this year and Jamie Moss has written the most recent draft of the script.