In June, we reported that Anton Corbijn (The American) was set to adapt John le Carré's novel, A Most Wanted Man.  Today, Variety reports that Philip Seymour Hoffman is set to play the lead, "a near-dead half-Chechen, half Russian man on the run [who] in the city's Islamic community desperate for help and looking to recover his late Russian father's ill-gotten fortune.  A young female lawyer and private British banker become entwined in his fate and all the while, they are being watched by a covert German spy unit."I was impressed at how Corbijn turned the thriller-premise of The American into a quiet, meditative drama, and I'm curious to see if he'll take the same approach with A Most Wanted Man.  Shooting is expected to begin this September in Hamburg.  Hit the jump for a synopsis of le Carré's novel.Here's the official synopsis for John le Carré's A Most Wanted Man:

A half-starved young Russian man is smuggled into Hamburg in the dead of night with an improbable amount of cash secreted in a purse around his neck. He is a devout Muslim. Or is he? He says his name is Issa.

Annabel, an idealistic young German civil rights lawyer, determines to save Issa from deportation, even if the price is her career—and her safety. Searching for clues to his mysterious past, she confronts the incongruous sixty-year-old scion of a failing British bank—and a triangle of impossible loves is born.

Meanwhile, scenting a sure kill in the “War on Terror,” the rival spies of three nations converge upon the innocents. [Amazon]

And here the trailer for the book:

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