Brett Ratner ("X-Men: The Last Stand", "Red Dragon", "Rush Hour") will direct a contemporary remake of 1978 thriller "The Boys From Brazil" for New Line Cinema reports Variety.

Based on the Ira Levin novel, the original "The Boys From Brazil" fit the mode of 1970s paranoid thrillers, with Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier) uncovering a diabolical plot by Nazis in South America to revive the Third Reich through the use of cloning.

Gregory Peck played Dr. Josef Mengele, the plot's mastermind who set out to breed a new "Hitler for the times" by creating 94 copies of Adolf Hitler and has the boys undergo the same childhood experiences in order to re-create his psyche.

Richard Potter and Matthew Stravitz will write the script which sticks close to Levin's novel but sets the action in the present day. The hope is Ratner will make "Boys" his follow-up to "Rush Hour 3" which New Line puts into production in late September.