Mike Newell to Direct New Spy Movie from Warner Brothers

Mike Newell, director of the new 'Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time' film adaptation, will be heading a new project about ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, according to Comingsoon.net.

Optioned by Warner Brothers, the movie will tell the tale of Litvinenko's career up to his poisoning in 2006. He died of exposure to the radioactive element polonium-210, and personally accused the Russian president of the time, Vladimir Putin, of his murder as he lay dying in a London hospital.

Newell, who also directed 'Pushing Tin,' 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire' and numerous segments in many of 'The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones' series, is working with scriptwriter David Scarpa. Scarpa also penned the recent 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' remake, and is currently working on the recently announced 'Daredevil' reboot. The movie is based on the book 'The Terminal Spy,' by the New York Times' London bureau chief Alan Cowell.