The Sigma Protocol revolves around a young investment banker who discovers a secret organization that has been manipulating the global economy. When the banker tries to expose the scheme, he’s targeted for death.

Universal originally acquired the material in 2002 and had several screenplay drafts written. Marcum and Holloway, however, have their own take and are expected to work from that. The pair were also hired to write the screenplay for a Highlander remake, but are now expected to begin work on The Sigma Protocol first.

Since the success of the Jason Bourne trilogy, Ludlum’s material has become hot property. In addition to The Sigma Protocol, many of the author’s other works are now getting the royal treatment. The Chancellor Manuscript was sold to Paramount in 2005 for $4 million, with producers Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher developing it with Appian Way as a star vehicle for Leonardo DiCaprio. MGM and Relativity Media spent $3 million earlier this year to acquire Ludlum’s 1979 espionage thriller The Matarese Circle with Denzel Washington attached to star and 3:10 to Yuma screenwriters Michael Brandt and Derek Haas penning the adaptation.

Screenwriters Derek Haas and Michael Brandt have already been hired by Universal to write a sequel to Wanted. Derek Haas had this to say:

“We’re just finishing up a book adaptation for Universal of the James Siegel novel ‘Deceit.’ We’ve been hired to write the sequel to ‘Wanted’ by the same studio,� Haas tells Pajiba . “And we’ve got a few more things in the hopper that it’s a little premature to talk about.�

“‘Wanted’ has been terrific. We first started working on it when only the first issue of the comic came out, and as the book became crazier and crazier, we tried to keep the script grounded. Timur Bekmambetov is directing and has been interesting and gratifying to work with. The movie is going to be a gigantic, hard-R action movie that we hope will satisfy the comic fans.�

It’s not unusual for studios to greenlight scripts for sequels to films before those films are released when they feel the movies will be huge, but Wanted has not been getting the kind of buzz that usually surrounds these types of movies. If anything, the buzz around Wanted has been decidedly negative (for whatever reason).

Wanted is based on a graphic novel and tells the story of a young man who finds out his long lost father is an assassin. When his father is murdered, the son is recruited into his father’s old organization and trained to follow in his father’s footsteps.

One can only assume that test audiences have been giving the film some fantastic scores – the kind of scores that makes Universal feel like they have a franchise on their hands. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. The newest trailer actually looks kind of cool to me.

Wanted – Movie Trailer

Wanted opens in theaters on June 27, 2008.

“The Matarese Circle,” revolves around two secret agents – an American and a Russian – who must work together to fight a mysterious group of killers known as the Matarese. The twist is (because there’s always a twist) the agents, Bradley Scofield and Vasili Taleniekov, have been nemeses for years and have a long and complicated history with one another, with each responsible for killing someone close to the other. Denzel Washington would be playing Bradley Scofield.

Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, the writers behind Lionsgate’s 3:10 to Yuma remake and the upcoming Universal summer tentpole, Wanted, are attached as writers. Veteran producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Nick Wechsler are on board as producers.

The reason the studios are so interested in this property has everything to do with a character by the name of Jason Bourne. Ludlum’s Bourne books were the basis for the movies starring Matt Damon that have now grossed more than $900M in worldwide box office. In fact, Universal is going forward with a fourth Bourne film despite the fact that Ludlum only wrote three Bourne books before he died. Two more were written by Eric Van Lustbader and published after Ludlum’s death, with a third Van Lustbader title expected in the summer.

“Matarese,” of course, could be attractive to studios seeking a new franchise. The property is the only other Ludlum creation to feature more than one novel; a second book, “The Matarese Countdown,” was published in 1997. Nearly all the major studios have heard at least a version of the pitch, with several thought to be extremely interested. No deal has yet been struck, but I would guess that it’s only a matter of time. This is about as close as it gets to a sure thing in Hollywood.

Twentieth Century Fox has skedded John Singleton’s film version of 1980s TV series “The A-Team” for release on June 12, 2009. Singleton will direct the action-adventure from a script by writing partners Michael Brandt and Derek Haas (“Wanted,” “3:10 to Yuma”).

We’ve already been hearing about how Ice-T or Ice Cube (one of the Ices) wants to play B.A. Baracus and how Singleton wants Woody Harrelson to play Capt. H.M. ‘Howling Mad’ Murdock. Singleton, however, does not want either of the Ice men.

I guess we’ll just have to wait for the casting announcements and the inevitable backlash from the crazy fans that still follow the show.

The “Twilight Zone” episode the film is based on, titled “Death Ship,” was written by featured “Twilight Zone” writer Richard Matheson (author of “I Am Legend”), who based it on his own short story published in a sci-fi magazine a number of years earlier.

If you haven’t seen this classic episode, the story revolves around a group of astronauts who land on a planet only to find a crashed spaceship and corpses that eerily resemble their own. They then must piece together where they are and whether they might in fact already be dead.

The Hollywood Reporter says Brandt will make his directorial debut with the futuristic film. Brandt said he was motivated to consider directing the film by an unlikely force: the writers strike. “I said to myself, ‘I can’t write, so let me put a directing presentation together,’ ” he said.

Brandt is currently rewriting the screenplay with his writing partner Derek Haas; it is based on an original screenplay by Stephen Gregg and Scott Burn. Brandt and Haas have collaborated on such movies as 3:10 to Yuma and 2 Fast 2 Furious, and they wrote the screenplay for the upcoming tentpole Wanted from Universal.

The movie, which Brandt said could go into production as early as late summer, is expected to cost in the $30 million range.