Amma Asante (A United Kingdom, Belle) will helm the upcoming adaptation of David E. Hoffman’s thriller The Billion Dollar Spy for Walden Media.

The Billion Dollar Spy is the true story of a man who became the Pentagon’s most valuable spy during the last years of the Cold War. Despite numerous rejections by a cautious CIA on the lookout for undercover KGB agents, Adolf G. Tolkachev, the chief designer at the USSR’s Research Institute of Radio Engineering, handed over tens of thousands of pages of highly classified documents to the U.S.

Ben August has scripted the adaptation. Akiva Goldsman will produce. Greag Lessans of Weed Road will executive produce, while Naia Cucukiv will oversea the film for Walden.

The Billion Dollar Spy will ve Asante’s next project after Where Hands Touch, which should expect a release date later this year of 2019. The WWII romance-drama stars Amandla Stenberg as a biracial German living in Nazi Germany.

Her other film credits include Belle and A United Kingdom, British period dramas based on true stories. Starting with Belle, Asante has found a home in with period dramas, she is the first Black female director to ever really do so.

Source: Deadline.