Spy vs. Spy Between Mann and Depp

Zap2It.com | January 15, 2007

Michael Mann

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Both men eye Litvinenko pics

Columbia Pictures and Michael Mann have begun development on a film about poisoned ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, setting up a race against Warner Bros. and Johnny Depp.

According to Variety, Columbia has paid big bucks for "Death of a Dissident," an unpublished Litvinenko book by Alex Goldfarb and Martina Litvinenko, the late spy's widow. Free Press will release the tome in May.

Mann ("Miami Vice") is attached to direct and produce along with Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher of Red Wagon.

The announcement of Columbia's Litvinenko biopic came the same day as Variety reported that Warner Bros. has acquired "Sasha's Story: The Life and Death of a Russian Spy," by Alan Cowell, New York Times London bureau chief, which will be developed by Depp's Infinitum Nihil shingle.

The Litvinenko story first broke in November when the former spy arrived in London poisoned by polonium-210. Litvinenko served in the KGB and later in the FSB, but he was jailed by the Russian government after accusing his organization of playing a role in a high profile civilian assassination. He fled to England and was granted political asylum, but continued to speak out against Vladimir Putin's Russian government. Litvinenko and later his widow accused Putin and the FSB of poisoning him. Authorities remain puzzled.

The trade paper says that Columbia's project may be in the lead, holding rights to both "Death of a Dissident" and Maria Litvinenko's life rights.