With only two films under his belt, the fantastic pair of the Joy Division film CONTROL and the existential assassin non-thriller masterpiece THE AMERICAN, photographer-turned-director Anton Corbijn has finally found a new project to call his own.

THR is reporting that the director will direct A MOST WANTED MAN, an adaptation of the John le Carre novel of the same name. The film will shoot prior to his long-talked about biopic on the life of actor/composer Herbert Gronemeyer, which has been batted around for a while now. Andrew Bovell is behind the film’s script, which will follow a mother/son pair who take in a street guy named Issa, and ultimately have their lives altered by impending investigations by various intelligence agencies. Hit the break for the full synopsis.

"When boxer Melik Oktay and his mother, both Turkish Muslims living in Hamburg, take in a street person calling himself Issa, they set off a chain of events implicating intelligence agencies from three countries. Issa, who claims to be a Muslim medical student, is, in fact, a wanted terrorist and the son of Grigori Karpov, a Red Army colonel whose considerable assets are concealed in a mysterious portfolio at a Hamburg bank. Tommy Brue, a stereotypical flawed everyman caught up in the machinations of spies and counterspies, enters the plot when Issa’s attorney seeks to claim these assets."

Both CONTROL and THE AMERICAN are wonderfully stylistic and effecting pieces of narrative cinema, so while I’m not all that familiar with the novel, I do absolutely adore Corbijn as a filmmaker, meaning that this writer will be sold on anything he touches. I think the premise is intriguing, and perfect in the hands of someone like Corbijn. Hopefully this one gets put together quick.