JJ Abrams finds a director for his diamond heist project

Back in March of 2009, at the request of JJ Abrams, Paramount acquired the feature film rights to “The Untold Story of the World’s Biggest Diamond Heist,” a Wired article by Joshua Davis. Abrams has been developing the film and has now brought on Phil Alden Robinson (FIELD OF DREAMS) who will write (and possibly direct) the project.

The article (which you can read here) follows one of the largest diamond heists in history with thieves getting past 10 layers of high-tech security at the Antwerp Diamond Center in Belgium and making off with over $100 million in diamonds, gold and jewelry.

Both Robinson and Abrams are no stranger to this type of movie with Robinson previously directing SNEAKERS and Abrams directing MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3 (and now producing MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 4).

Robinson was nominated for an Oscar for his DREAMS script but doesn’t have a feature writing credit since 1992 and hasn’t directed a film since 2002’s A SUM OF ALL FEARS.