Mitch Rapp, the lead protagonist from Vince Flynn's series of spy novels, has had a long and constantly changing journey to the the big screen. At one point Matthew Fox was set to play the ruthless CIA killer for director Antoine Fuqua's adaptation of "Consent to Kill," the first Rapp novel. Then CBS Films changed directions and decided that American Assassin, the eleventh installment in the series, would be the first Rapp film and Edward Zwick was chosen as the one to direct. But since Zwick is too caught up with The Great Wall to continue, he has been replaced by Jeffrey Nachmanoff.
Deadline reports that Nachmanoff will now direct American Assassin, a prequel or origin story of sorts for Flynn's cold-blooded protagonist. Mitch Rapp was just your ordinary star athlete and scholar at university until tragedy strikes and changes him forever. And when a new group of clandestine CIA operatives is being assembled, suddenly Rapp seems like the perfect recruit. By the sounds of it, losing Zwick might not be the worst thing since Nachmanoff directed the underrated Traitor as well as a few episodes of Homeland, both of which are also set int the world of international espionage.
The latest draft of the American Aassassin script was written by Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, but if I had to guess, I imagine the new writer/director may want to put his own spin on the upcoming Flynn adaptation. CBS Fims hopes that the Nachmanoff-led adaptation will be the beginning of their own Bourne-style franchise, so the next big step will be finding a college-aged leading man to play Rapp. In a cinematic world saturated with origin stories and spy thrillers, finding the right leading man will go a long way in helping Nachmanoff's third feature stand out.
