Paul Greengrass to direct thriller Agent Storm: My Life Inside Al Qaeda

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

There hasn’t been much talk about a new Paul Greengrass project for quite some time; his last release, CAPTAIN PHILLIPS, scored a number of wins critically but it’s been quiet ever since. Reports today suggest the director is now attached to adapt another true story for the big screen with his CAPTAIN PHILLIPS producer Scott Rudin. They will adapt Morten Storm’s non-fiction book Agent Storm: My Life Inside Al Qaeda.

Here’s the official synopsis for Morten Storm’s Agent Storm [via amazon]:

Morten Storm was an unlikely Jihadi. A six-foot-one red-haired Dane, Storm spent his teens in and out of trouble. A book about the Prophet Mohammed prompted his conversion to Islam, and Storm sought purpose in a community of believers. He attended a militant madrasah in Yemen, named his son Osama, and became close friends with Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born terrorist cleric. But after a decade of Jihadi life, he not only repudiated extremism but, in a quest for atonement, became a double agent for the CIA and British and Danish intelligence.

Agent Storm takes readers inside the jihadist world like never before, showing the daily life of zealous men set on mass murder, from dodging drones with al-Qaeda leaders in the Arabian desert to training in extremist gyms in Britain and performing supply drops in Kenya. The book also provides a tantalizing look at his dangerous life undercover, as Storm traveled the world for missions targeting its most dangerous terrorists , and into the world’s most powerful spy agencies: their tradecraft, rivalries, and late-night carousing, as well as their ruthless use of a beautiful blonde in an ambitious honey trap. Agent Storm is a captivating, utterly unique, real-life espionage tale.

In the right hands, a riveting true story can be turned into a great dramatic adaptation, or in this case, a thriller by the sounds of it. I trust Greengrass, who is a fantastic storyteller with a camera, will have no issue with taking this book and turning it into something powerful for us to watch on the big screen. Like a lot of you though, I’m still waiting for him to take Matt Damon up on his offer to do another Bourne movie. We will keep you posted on all things Greengrass, but in the meantime what do you guys think about this project?