Soon to stake his claim in Kung Fury 2: The Movie, actor Michael Fassbender is officially tapped to star in another hopeful franchise outing, Malko. The project is officially housed at Lionsgate as of Tuesday with the studio further acquiring the rights to Gerard de Villier’s string of best-selling espionage thrillers titled S.A.S., from which de Villier’s 1973 publication, Checkpoint Charlie, has been chosen first on the studio’s menu.
The S.A.S. franchise follows the singular hero, Malko Linge, an Austrian nobleman and freelance CIA operative who spent his formative years in a special Nazi work camp for captured spies. Malko learned the intricate dark arts of tradecraft from the best. Now, an adult living in a reclaimed family manor fallen into disrepair, Malko becomes a spy for hire. He is the ultimate agent without an agency – a gentleman warrior without a country who works according to his own moral code and lives the only way a man who has grown up in the face of death can: with a wicked wit and a lust for all things in life, even the things that might kill him.
Fassbender, having just completed his stint among Fox’s cadre of X-Men franchise talents, will produce through his DMC Film banner from a script by Oscar nominated screenwriter, exec producer Eric Warren Singer (American Hustle, upcoming Top Gun: Maverick). Joining in to produce is Black Magic’s Lars Sylvest who reportedly developed the property with Gérard de Villiers, Kingsgate Films’ Greg Shapiro (Academy Award winner for The Hurt Locker) and Rocket Science’s Thorsten Schumacher.
Jason Clark will also exec produce with Singer and with DMC’s Conor McCaughan. Lionsgate’s Senior VP of Production James Myers and Director of Development Brady Fujikawa will oversee.
“We are enormously excited to be teaming with Greg Shapiro and Michael Fassbender as well as Lars Sylvest from Black Magic and Thorsten Schumacher from Rocket Science to develop Malko,” said Drake. “This is a character with a tremendous 200 title library of amazing spy stories to draw from and we believe we have a world-class creative team in place with Michael and Eric Warren Singer as we move forward on this project.”