Currently recovering from an on-set accident that has pushed production on Maze Runner: The Death Cure by close to two months, Deadline is reporting Dylan O’Brien has opened talks to assume the role of Mitch Rapp in an upcoming adaptation of Vince Flynn’s crime series, American Assassin.
In the works over at CBS Films and Lionsgate, should a deal place it would have O’Brien starring oppose Michael Keaton, who boarded the long-gestating project earlier in the year as Rapp’s mentor Stan Hurley, who’s described as “a badass Cold War veteran who teaches the young assassin everything he needs to know.”
An expert in global counter-terrorist operations, American Assassin‘s coveted title role is being aligned as a defining one, potentially paving the way for an action franchise based on Flynn’s decorated body of work – one that spanned 14 novels before the writer passed away in 2013. Rocked by a terrorist attack that takes the life of his fiancee, the core premise of the novel sees Mitch Happ (O’Brien) and Hurley (Keaton) dispatched on an international mission designed to prevent a rogue agent from instigating World War III.
Stephen Schiff is the scribe adapting the novel for the screen, while both Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Nick Wechsler are attached to produce.
Deadline cautions that talks between Dylan O’Brien and Lionsgate are still ongoing, but early signs appear positive.
