DreamWorks' plan to revive spy Matt Helm has taken on new life, with the signing of Michael Brandt and Derek Haas to write a new pic reports Variety. Brand & Haas recently have been at work on adaptations of the comic "Wanted" and Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan novel "Red Rabbit".
The duo will pen a contemporary pic based on the subject of around two dozen novels by Donald Hamilton. Helm is a former spy during WWII who, upon retiring from his top-secret organization, unsuccessfully attempts to put his past behind him.
Columbia Pictures released four Matt Helm-inspired spy spoofs starring Dean Martin starting in 1966. The first Helm book was "Death of a Citizen," published in 1960. DreamWorks has dabbled with the idea of a Helm franchise before but it never came to fruition.
Thanks to 'Jane'.
