After the surprise, sleeper success of Kingsman: The Secret Service, director Matthew Vaughn is sticking to the spy genre with his next project, I Am Pilgrim. THR reports Vaughn will direct and produce the feature adaptation of Terry Hayes' best-selling espionage thriller for MGM, as well as co-financing through his company MARV films.
Vaughn will direct from a script by Hayes, who adapted his own novel for the screen. Before penning I am Pilgrim -- his first novel -- Hayes had an accomplished career as a screenwriter, including the films Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome, Dead Calm and Payback.
Here's the I Am Pilgrim synopsis from the report.
Based on 2014's mammoth best seller, the story follows “Pilgrim,” code name for a man who doesn’t exist. The adopted son of a wealthy American family, he once headed up a secret espionage unit for U.S. intelligence. Now in anonymous retirement, he is called upon to lend his expertise to an unusual investigation but ultimately becomes caught in a terrifying race against time to save America from a cunning terrorist.
I Am Pilgrim saw massive success as a novel, translated into more than 30 languages after landing on a number of U.S. best-seller lists including the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, and earning the title of best-selling debut of 2014 in the U.K.. Haynes is currently working on a follow-up novel featuring the same protagonist, and MGM is keen to see I Am Pilgrim spawn a film franchise.
With only five films under his belt as director, Vaughn has proven himself the right guy to kick off franchises, first with Kick-Ass, which garnered a sequel directed by Jeff Wadlow. Vaughn followed that up by reviving Fox's X-Men franchise with the mega-hit X-Men: First Class, before heading off to adapt Mark Millar's Kingsman: The Secret Service. Kingsman received a sequel greenlight back in April, with Vaughn hard at work on the screenplay. With a 2016 start date projected for I Am Pilgrim -- a date that seems likely to overlap with production on Kingsman 2 -- It looks like Vaughn will continue his track record of getting a franchise off the ground only to head on to the next big thing.
What do you think? Excited to see Vaughn carry on in the spy genre? Still hoping to see him back at the helm for Kingsman 2? Sound off in the comments.
