The Tracking Board is reporting that Jeremy Saulnier, director of ScreenAnarchy faves Blue Ruin and Green Room, will be directing Defection for 20th Century Fox, from a screenplay by Ken Nolan. This marks the director's first foray into big studio film work.
Defection tells the story of Leo Diamond, a broken down CIA case officer who uses his calculated Cold War training to go after a mid-level CIA intelligence contractor who has defected to North Korea and has taken a mysterious suitcase with him.
Nolan had adaptated the 1973 novel The Defection of A.J. Lewinter by Robert Litnell. The script was then featured on The Hit List and The Black List before being picked up by Fox.