Hot off the release of his latest film Rebecca alongside Lily James, Armie Hammer has been cast as a spy in new Cold War thriller, Billion Dollar Spy.
Produced by Akiva Goldsman, who was the brains behind Russel Crowe’s A Beautiful Mind, Hammer will play Brad Reid, a CIA agent who goes to work at the Russian branch in Moscow.
Once he arrives, Brad is approached by a Soviet engineer, Adolf Tolkachev — played by Another Round’s Mads Mikkelsen — who is obviously a “KGB dangle”. Ignoring the advice of his colleagues, Brad befriends the Russian and develops a strong bond with him, leading to Adolf rewarding him with a trove of military secrets, obtained using classic Cold War spycraft.
Tolkachev earns the name “The Billion Dollar Spy” and the balance of power between the East and West of the world is altered for good.
The film is based on a true story written by Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, David E Hoffman. After lengthy research into the world of espionage, Hoffman drew on experience from previous viewings of classified CIA documents and interviews.
Benjamin August will adapt the screenplay and according to HanWay Films managing director, Gabrielle Stewart, he has “brilliantly mined Hoffman’s detailed account of Billion Dollar Spy”.
Stewart continued: “At the same time we are going to inhabit the contrasting personal lives of our two spies: the personal challenges and the impact their world-changing activities have on their marriages, their families and their own psyches.
“Asante’s imprint is right here, and along with her very talented actors, she has the opportunity to give us a completely fresh and multi-layered perspective on the Cold War thriller,” she said in a statement.
Billion Dollar Spy will begin production in Eastern Europe in 2021, with an estimated release of 2022.