Feb 14, 2018

Tradecraft: Keira Knightley and Matt Smith Team for Katharine Gun Movie

Two years ago we heard about Official Secrets, a fact-based spy movie with an incredible cast about GCHQ whistle blower Katherine Gun. The all-star cast was to include Harrison Ford, Anthony Hopkins, Paul Bettany, and Martin Freeman, behind Game of Thrones' Natalie Dormer in the lead role. But as exciting as that cast sounded, nothing ever came of the movie. Now it's back on track, but reconfigured with a different cast. The Hollywood Reporter reports that Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game) and Matt Smith (Doctor Who) will now star in the revamped version of Official Secrets. Justin Chadwick (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Spooks) was originally set to direct, but now Gavin Hood (Tsotsi, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) will serve in that capacity.

Official Secrets is still based on the 2008 book The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War: Katharine Gun and the Secret Plot to Sanction the Iraq Invasion by Marcia and Thomas Mitchell. The title pretty much says it all, but Gun (who more closely resembles Dormer than Knightley) leaked an email to The Observer exposing an illegal U.S./UK intelligence operation designed to influence U.N. approval of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The film, financed by eOne (who will also distribute in certain territories), is set to start shooting next month.

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