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Edward Zwick Set to Direct Adaptation of 'American Assassin' Novel

by Ethan Anderton
June 8, 2011

Last year we heard that DiBonaventura Pictures had set Antoine Fuqua to adapt the Vince Flynn novel Consent to Kill which follows counter-terrorism agent Mitch Rapp who's battling a Saudi billionaire, an ex-East German Stasi spy and a husband-and-wife team of assassins, all while dealing with a knee injury. However, today CBS Films announced that they've gotten Edward Zwick to adapt American Assassin, a different novel from Flynn which also focuses on his recurring Mitch Rapp character before he began hunting terrorists. here's a good chance that this could turn into a new franchise as well.

Before our protagonist Rapp became a legendary CIA agent, he was a gifted scholar and athlete. But after a sudden tragedy, Rapp was recruited into the nation's most elite covert operations program where he was trained in various lethal skills to target our most dangerous enemies and became a man with a mission of retribution. Director Edward Zwick says, "The Mitch Rapp novels are as thrilling and entertaining as they are relevant and I am delighted to be given the opportunity to translate them to the screen."

Apparently CBS Films was also involved in the development of Consent to Kill, but they opted to introduce Mitch Rapp in this story first. CBS Films President and CEO Amy Baer said, “We were prepping Consent to Kill when Vince told us he was going to tell Mitch Rapp’s origin story in American Assassin.  From there it was a natural decision to introduce audiences to Mitch Rapp - the man before he became the legend." CBS Films also owns the rights to the whole series and any sequels or spin-offs that come from Flynn's novels. Could we be looking at the new Jason Bourne or Jack Ryan in the making? What do you think?

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