Tradecraft: Michael Brandt To Direct Richard Gere Spy Movie

The Hollywood Reporter reports that writer Michael Brandt will make his directorial debut on the spy thriller Double, starring Richard Gere and Topher Grace.  Brandt wrote Double with his partner Derek Haas (the pair have also penned such hits as Wanted and 3:10 to Yuma, as well as Catch That Kid).  According to the trade, Double "begins with the murder of a senator in Washington by a Soviet assassin long thought to be dead. A retired CIA operative (Gere), who spent his career going toe to toe with his Soviet nemeses, is forced to partner with a young FBI agent (Grace) to hunt the killer down. Brandt said he was a fan of films such as The Conversation, Three Days of the Condor and No Way Out, and hoped to follow in their tradition." Brandt and Haas are no strangers to the spy genre; the pair have contributed to such anxiously awaited in-development spy fare as Matt Helm and Robert Ludlum's The Matarese Circle.