Rami Malek. Image: USA Network via AFP Relaxnews
Universal has optioned the rights to “American Radical: Inside the World of an Undercover Muslim FBI Agent”.
The memoir was published in October 2017, written by Tamer Elnoury and Kevin Maurer. It details how Elnoury, an American Muslim police officer, joined a counterterrorism unit post-9/11, deftly infiltrating an al-Qaeda group planning an attack.
The Mr. Robot show creator/showrunner Sam Esmail and its star Rami Malek will translate the undercover story for the big screen. The two will also produce. The material has faint echoes of their TV series — entering its fourth season later on this year — which centers on a cybersecurity hacker who joins an underground anarchist group.
Malek will notably star as Freddie Mercury, in the late singer’s biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody”, to be released Nov. 2. He is also lending a voice to a character in Universal’s live-action/CG hybrid, “Dr. Doolittle”. JB
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