Jason Statham is in talks to star in “Echelon,” a thriller based on “Firewall,” one of Brit Andy McNab’s Nick Stone espionage tomes.
Pic, which Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park Intl. is shopping in Berlin, previously had Eric Bana attached.
“Echelon” is the third pic to come out of Hyde Park’s $250 million pact with Imagenation Abu Dhabi to develop, produce and distribute films over the next seven years.
Pic is the directorial debut of Simon Crane, and will see Amritraj produce alongside veteran casting agent Bonnie Timmermann, who acquired rights to the series in the mid-1990s.
In 2001 Timmermann sold the rights to Harvey Weinstein, who tried for years to get a Nick Stone project off the ground, but the spy pics turned cold after 9/11 and Weinstein let the rights lapse.
Hyde Park is shopping titles in Berlin including “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance 3D,” Paul Rudd starrer “My Idiot Brother” and Michael Brandt’s “The Double.”
Statham is repped by CAA.
