Mike Newell set for the Terminal Spy

Back in 2006, a Russian dissident a vocal critic of Vladimir Putin suddenly fell ill after sipping tea. Three weeks later he was dead, the result of radioactive poisoning. Alexander Litvinenko was a former KGB agent who died of mysterious causes shortly after accusing Putin of ordering the murder of a journalist. Sounds like the plot of a movie, right? Well, pretty soon it will be.

Mike Newell, who’s putting the finishing touches on PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME, is attached to write and direct a movie based on “The Terminal Spy,” a book that tells the story of Litvinenko’s saga. Newell will write the script with David Scarpa based on the book by former New York Times writer Alan Cowell.

If you were an actor would you want to star in this movie? I’d be like, “ummm, no thanks, I’ll go star in MARMADUKE 2 instead…” I could just imagine someone squirting poison into my coffee like Emmanuelle Béart in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. That said, it is a pretty fascinating story and one that will no doubt make for a pretty suspenseful flick and this guy would make an awesome villain.