Rupert Sanders may have had success with Snow White and the Huntsman, but he got pulled off the sequel after his affair with Kristen Stewart came to light. Since then he’s flirted with a few other projects, and now he’s got a new one, as Deadline reports that he’s planning a spy thriller based on a Frederick Forsyths forthcoming novel, Kill List.
The tale is said to be, ‘an intricate chess game between a brilliant Marine, an Israeli agent, a teenage hacker and a mysterious psychopathic cleric.’
Sanders has always been a fan of Forsyth, and apparently particularly liked this one after it reminded him of the Hemingway line, “There is no hunting like the hunting of men, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter.
The director commented on Forsyth’s work, “Day Of The Jackal, Odessa File and The Dogs Of War are three of the finest works of modern espionage. It is an incredible privilege to work from Forsyths new novel The Kill List. It is a thrilling read and frighteningly accurate. It immerses us in the shadowy worlds of terrorists, spies, private contractors, US and UK special forces. It spans an epic, international world and delves deep into the psychology of its two main characters the hunter a US Special Forces Tracker and the hunted an extreme fundamentalist terrorist. Forsyths depth of research and authenticity creates a vivid and frightening story a nightmare scenario that is all too possible. He predicted new strains of civilian terrorism long before the horrible murder in Woolwich and draws out conclusions to where such actions spread like a virus.