Captain Phillips was an incredibly taut and finely made thriller that ranked among the very best films of last year, so it’s very exciting to learn today that its director Paul Greengrass and producer Scott Rudin are already planning another collaboration. Sticking to ripped-from-the-headlines drama, the pair are reteaming for the red-hot book Agent Storm: My Life Inside Al Qaeda, which is set to hit U.S. bookstores in September.
Written by Morten Storm, Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister, Agent Storm follows a former Islamic radical who becomes a double agent for the CIA and British and Danish intelligence. Greengrass is developing the story with intentions to direct, while Rudin is on board as a producer.
Amazon describes Agent Storm as follows:
Morten Storm was an unlikely Jihadi. A six-foot-one red-haired Dane, Storm spent his teens in and out of trouble. A book about the Prophet Mohammed prompted his conversion to Islam, and Storm sought purpose in a community of believers. He attended a militant madrasah in Yemen, named his son Osama, and became close friends with Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born terrorist cleric. But after a decade of Jihadi life, he not only repudiated extremism but, in a quest for atonement, became a double agent for the CIA and British and Danish intelligence.
Agent Storm takes readers inside the jihadist world like never before, showing the daily life of zealous men set on mass murder, from dodging drones with al-Qaeda leaders in the Arabian desert to training in extremist gyms in Britain and performing supply drops in Kenya. The book also provides a tantalizing look at his dangerous life undercover, as Storm traveled the world for missions targeting its most dangerous terrorists , and into the world’s most powerful spy agencies: their tradecraft, rivalries, and late-night carousing, as well as their ruthless use of a beautiful blonde in an ambitious honey trap. Agent Storm is a captivating, utterly unique, real-life espionage tale.
Greengrass and Rudin teaming up is definitely cause for excitement, and the gripping, topical story of Agent Storm suggests that this could shape up into a hefty Oscar contender, à la Captain Phillips.
We’ll be sure to bring you the latest on the intriguing project as it develops.
