The novel tells the story of a US black-ops agent, Michael Havelock, who first witnesses the assassination of his lover, believed to be a KGB double-agent, only to later see her alive and well in Rome. Taking matters into his own hands, Havelock uncovers an international conspiracy with a mole known as Parsifal at its centre.
A script already exists for the project, penned by David Self (Thirteen Days, Road to Perdition), while Brian Grazer and Ron Howard are on board to produce the film with Captivate Entertainment. Should the project go ahead, this would be Zhang's first Hollywood studio production and his first fully English language film.
A rewrite is also on the cards if Zhang gets involved, and considering the novel's Cold War setting, it would be interesting to see if that element is updated, perhaps even replacing the Soviet angle with a Chinese one.