Recent Mike Newell projects have included **Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire **and Prince of Persia, but it looks as if he's putting aside childish things for the immediate future. Variety report that he's set to write and direct){href='http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118015139.html?categoryid=3534&cs=1&nid=2562&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+variety/headlines+(Variety+-+Latest+News)' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer'} a film about the strange death of Alexander Litvinenko.
Litvinenko, you'll recall, was the exiled Russian dissident poisoned with the rare radioactive metalloid Polonium 2.0 in a London restaurant in 2006. A vociferous critic of Vladimir Putin's government, he publicly accused the Russian president from his hospital bed of being behind his murder. Russia refused to extradite chief suspect, former KGB operative Andrey Lugovoy to the UK.
Newell's proposed film is based on New York Times journalist Alan Cowell's book The Terminal Spy, covering Litvinenkos's life before his exile, as well as his bizarre death and its international political implications. The title will probably be changed.
This isn't the first Litvinenko film to be proposed: Johnny Depp and Michael Mann were both attached to versions as early as 2007. No names other than Newell's are being mentioned at this point, but the film is apparently in "advanced stages of development", so this may be the one that finally reaches the screen.