Only a few weeks ago, it was announced that a new adapatation of the Matt Helm books was in the works and that Steven Spielberg was attached to direct. However it quickly emerged that the great bearded one was only likely to produce, as Paramount didn’t want to pay out for the sort of contract that Spielberg demands. Well, now it appears that Seabiscuit director Gary Ross will be the one behind the camera.
Only last week it was announced that Ross was taking over the writing of and possibly directing the Spider-man spin-off Venom. It certainly seems that Ross is going in a far more commercial direction than he has with his previous films. Playlist, which broke the story, says its source reckons, “Venom is a ways off and will have to wait, Matt Helm is coming first and is being scheduled to shoot in the summer of 2010 if all goes according to plan.”
It seems he’ll start work in earnest on Matt Helm once he’s finished re-writing Spider-man 4.
Matt Helm, based on the books by Donald Hamilton, is a pulp fiction super-spy, and previously appeared in a series of movies in the 1960s, starring Dean Martin. Paramount is hoping that their new version had the potential to be a Bond-style franchise, and they seem to be betting of Gary Ross to get it up and running.