New Line uncovers Agent Zigzag

It was his mission… His driving ambition… It required skill. Fortitude. And lashings of dosh. No, it’s not the plot for New Line’s adaptation of Ben Macintyre’s book Agent Zigzag: A True Story Of Espionage, Love And Betrayal, but rather the story behind New Line honcho Bob Shaye’s quest to nab the rights to it.

After reading an enthusiastic review in the New York Times, Shaye apparently bested Warners (which, in an ironic twist made a movie called Triple Cross based on the same story in 1966) in a clash to get the film rights to the story, which finds Eddie Chapman, criminal and con artist who was trained by the Nazis at the start of World War Two. He became a master spy, but fortunately for us Brits, he contacted MI5 while on a mission in Britain and became a double agent.

Tom Hanks is co-producing the movie through his Playtone company, though there’s no sign he’ll consider starring. In fact, there’s no cast, director or even a writer assigned yet.