Cheadle & Pearce in Steve Martin's espionage thriller?

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce have both signed up for an espionage thriller over at Overture Films. The movie titled Traitor is to be helmed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff from a script he himself wrote from an original idea from Steve Martin. Yes that Steve Martin!

The story centers on a CIA operative working undercover with a terrorist group who becomes a terrorist suspect. Cheadle is the undercover agent, while Pearce is an FBI agent investigating terrorist activities.

The Hollywood Reporter have quite a humorous story about this project. Back in 2002, Steve Martin on the set of the trash comedy Bringing Down the House approached producers Hoberman and Liberman telling them he had an idea for an espionage thriller. Martin said to meet up in his trailer to discuss it... and of course the producers never turned up thinking it was just Steve Martin being Steve Martin! The next day, Martin told them he wasn't joking and blew the producers away with his idea. The project was soon pitched to Walt Disney Studio's but problems with finding the right guy to adapt the script meant a 5 year wait in development which now seems to be over. The movie begins shooting in September in Toronto and Morocco and I know personally, I'm intrigued to see a serious thriller from the mind of Steve Martin! Cheadle and Pearce are always great to watch too and it's always nice to see them in leading roles rather than the supporting gig they sometimes get lumped with.