Matthew Vaughn to direct I Am Pilgrim adaptation

Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class, Kingsman: The Secret Service) has been signed up to direct and produce MGM’s movie adaptation of Terry Hayes’ debut thriller I Am Pilgrim.

Hayes’ bestselling novel follows Pilgrim, the codename for a man who doesn’t exist. The adopted son of a wealthy American family, he once headed up a secret espionage unit for US intelligence. Before he disappeared into anonymous retirement, he wrote the definitive book on forensic criminal investigation – but that book will come back to haunt him. It will help NYPD detective Ben Bradley track him down, and it will take him to a rundown New York hotel room where the body of a woman is found facedown in a bath of acid, her features erased, her teeth missing, her fingerprints gone. It is a textbook murder – and Pilgrim wrote the book. What begins as an unusual and challenging investigation becomes a terrifying race-against-time to save America from oblivion at the hands of a terrorist.

Hayes, also a producer and screenwriter whose credits include Payback, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior and Dead Calm, has adapted I Am Pilgrim which MGM envisions as the start of a new franchise. Production on the film is scheduled to begin in 2016.

If you’ve read the book, you’ll understand why we’re so excited – and if you haven’t, now’s the perfect time!