‘American Ultra’ Director Nima Nourizadeh Tapped for ‘Tracking of a Russian Spy’

Remember American Ultra? That movie starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart and their incredibly entertaining chemistry? That started out as a stoner/mumblecore romance and quickly turned into a spy thriller? Director Nima Nourizadeh just can’t get away from espionage, it seems, as he’s been tapped to helm The Tracking of a Russian Spy.

Nourizadeh will direct the film for StudioCanal, which has been developing this project for some time now. Oddly, Drake Doremus (Like Crazy, Equals) was originally supposed to direct, but for whatever reason those plans fell through. The movie will be based on Mitch Swenson’s fact-based autobiographical novella, in which he tells the story of his secret dalliance with a woman who might just be, you guessed it, a Russian spy.

Here’s The Hollywood Reporter’s synopsis of the project:

The plot centers on a secret romance between Swenson and Katya, a mysterious Russian woman he met in a New York nightclub. She disappeared suddenly after the arrest of 10 Russian Americans who were charged with spying for the Kremlin. Swenson went to Moscow to uncover who his love really was, leading him down a rabbit hole of intrigue and shadow government operations deep within Russia.

This isn’t the only Russian spy movie we’ll be seeing in the near future either: the new John Wick is coming out soon, and Jennifer Lawrence’s Red Sparrow is picking up its cast members and should be heading to theaters in the next couple of years. Honestly, this doesn’t speak to well to real spies’ skills: if they were so good at keeping their work a secret, would we be seeing so many movies about them? I don’t think so.