Every book that was actually written by Robert Ludlum has either become a movie or has been snapped up by a studio somewhere, which means Hollywood is going to have to be a little more creative in making new spy franchises. And I do mean just a little, very little more creative. Because Ludlum wasn't just an author, he was a brand name, and his attachment to the book series Covert One is enough to make it hot enough to get a movie franchise of its own.
Ludlum served as kind of a producer on Covert One, a series written by several authors that followed a team of political and technical experts working for a top-secret U.S. spy agency. According to Pajiba, writer and producer Frank Marshall will be directing a film based on the series for Captivate Entertainment, the outfit that's also snagged the rights for other Ludlum novels including the Bourne franchise. Covert One, like the Bourne movies, will be set up at Universal as well.
There's actually already been an adaptation of a Covert One novel, the 2006 TV movie The Hades Factor starring Stephen Dorff and Mira Sorvino. Something tells me we're all going to start pretending that one never existed when the new version finally goes into production.
