Phillip Noyce Looking At Navy Seal/Russian President Thriller

Phillip Noyce at event
(Image credit: Oscars)

UPDATE: According to a press release at Deadline, the news is official. The movie adaptation will be retitled Hunter Killer, and production is set to start later this year.

When discussing actors coming into upcoming roles, movie fans are apt to talk about whether they make a good fit or not. Perhaps more important to a film's quality, however, is whether or not the director fits. You see this in the independent world all the time. Someone could be wonderful at helming thoughtful, low budget pictures, but when given a larger budget and studio pressures to cast a wide net for potential viewers, the once promising voice gets lost amidst the outside demands. That's why the Michael Bay's of the world should never be discounted. The hardcore movie enthusiast may bitch about scrimping on story or character development (these would be very fair gripes), but when it comes to taking hundreds of millions of dollars and effectively turning it into a sell-able product, Michael Bay is among the best. So too is Phillip Noyce.

According to Moviehole, the Salt director is salivating over a possible future adaptation of the novel Firing Point. The Don Keith and George Wallace story is about a Russian president reeling amidst an overthrow plot by a rogue admiral. The United States sends in the Navy Seals and a sub commander to save the day. The adaptation is set to be titled Hunter Killer.

You may remember Noyce was the man responsible for Clear And Present Danger and Patriot Games. He's already proven he's a good fit for these types of projects. Now we're just left to wonder whether the producers can get everything in place before the director officially starts another film.

Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.