Tradecraft: New Team Invokes The Sigma Protocol

We heard in mid-2008 that Iron Man scribes Art Marcum and Matt Holloway were tackling an adaptation of Robert Ludlum's final completed novel, The Sigma Protocol, for Universal and Strike Entertainment. But things have been quiet on that front for some time. Now, Deadline reports that the project is still in the works at Uni, but with new writers and new producers. According to the trade blog, legendary producer Irwin Winkler (Goodfellas, The Right Stuff, S*P*Y*S) has been tapped not only to co-produce (along with Captivate Entertainment's Jeffrey Weiner and Ben Smith, custodians of the Ludlum legacy), but also to co-write the film with Jose Ruisanchez. In his entire four-plus decade career, Winkler has only three writing credits (most recently for the 2006 Samuel L. Jackson drama Home of the Brave). Apparently his take involves going back to the book (kind of a radical approach to Ludlum after the last two Bourne films disappointingly abandoned the author's plots), after Marcum and Holloway's draft had drifted fairly far afield in an attempt to be topical with Wall Street themes. Ludlum's novel, which I haven't read, follows, an ordinary man on vacation in Europe who becomes entangled in international intrigue with a female rogue agent. “What we are really hoping to do is create a franchise around this ordinary guy, ” Winkler told Deadline “Unlike Bourne, who is a trained assassin, this is an innocent guy traveling in Europe who gets in way over his head. And it has all the great Ludlum intrigue.” There are so many Ludlum movies in development; I just want to see some of them actually get made!