I hope you’re ready for a new spy franchise, because we’ve just learned that Universal has picked up Daniel Silva’s novels that focus on Gabriel Allon with the plans to make the whole thing into a potential new franchise.
So, Allon, a former Israeli intelligence operative turned art restorer who had appeared in ten of Silva’s books, is our next big screen hero? Check out the rest of this report for more details.
It looks that guys from Universal are very interested in Silva’s novels, since they picked up rights to all past and future books in the series, which have an estimated 25 million books in print. On the other hand, we also know that former NBC head Jeff Zucker will be the producer, while Silva will be involved as exec producer on the film adaptation. So, it definitely sounds huge.
As we said, Allon has appeared in ten of Silva’s books, beginning with 2001’s The Kill Artist and continuing through the recent The Rembrandt Affair. The latest installment, Portrait of a Spy, will be published by Harper in July. The studio is currently looking for a screenwriter, and they will soon have to decide which of the ten novels will be adapted first. In a meanwhile, check out the synopsis of Silva’s first novel The Kill Artist:
“Gabriel Allon was a key operative in secret Israeli-intelligence missions. When his wife and daughter fell victim to the danger that accompanied him everywhere, Gabriel quit and devoted himself to the work of art restoration– previously a cover for his secret missions. But now Ari Shamron, the head of Israeli intelligence, needs Gabriel’s particular kind of experience to thwart a Palestinian plot to destroy the peace negotiations in the Middle East.
The architect of this plot, a Palestinian zealot named Tariq, is a lethal part of Gabriel’s past, and so as the two begin an intercontinental game of hide-and-seek, with life and death as the prizes, the motives are as personal as they are political. The story, by an author who was praised by Newsday for “Bringing new life to the international thriller,” features a colorful supporting cast– including the Magus-like Shamron, a beautiful French-Jewish model who is seeking retribution for her family’s death in the Holocaust, and a marvelously comic down-at-the-heels London art dealer. And it includes fascinating background detail about the Palestinian situation and the cutthroat art world. All of these elements add up to a smart and electrically exciting international thriller.”
The Kill Artist
