MGM has remained slow but steady to pass in the last several years to get an adaptation going for Terry Hayes’ bestseller, I Am Pilgrim. On Monday, upward news of a director attached made way at Deadline with word that upcoming Ad Astra director James Gray will helm the movie based on the hit 2014 espionage spy novel.
“Pilgrim” is the codename for a man who doesn’t exist. The adopted son of a wealthy American family, he once headed up a secret espionage unit for US intelligence. Now in anonymous retirement, he is called upon to lend his expertise to an unusual investigation but ultimately becomes caught in a terrifying race-against-time to save America from oblivion.
Kingsman helmer Matthew Vaughn was intially tapped to direct back in 2015. Lloyd Braun is producing the film from a script by Hayes whose screenwriting credits also include Payback, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, Dead Calm and From Hell.