2018 Athena Film Festival honoree Amma Asante has booked her next gig. She will direct the big screen adaptation of David E. Hoffman’s true crime thriller “The Billion Dollar Spy” for Walden Media and Weed Road Pictures, Deadline confirms. This will mark Asante’s fifth feature film.
Hoffman’s book “is the true story of a man who became the Pentagon’s most valuable spy during the last years of the Cold War,” the source details. “Adolf G. Tolkachev, the chief designer at the USSR’s Research Institute of Radio Engineering, handed over tens of thousands of pages of highly classified documents to the U.S. Tolkachev quickly became the crown jewel of the CIA’s spy network, though in return, his greatest ask was for gifts for his son. For years, Tolkachev and his handler successfully eluded the KGB in its own backyard, until the day came when a shocking betrayal put them all at risk.”
Ben August (“Remember”) will pen the script for “Billion Dollar Spy”
“We are so proud to have Amma at the helm of this prestigious project,” Walden Media president/CEO Frank Smith said. “She is an incredibly talented director who will bring her unique vision and experience to this film.”
Asante previously directed “Belle,” and “A United Kingdom.” She became the first Black female director to win a BAFTA Film Award for writing and directing with her directorial debut, “A Way of Life.” In 2017 Asante was named an MBE by Queen Elizabeth on the 2017 Birthday Honours list, for her services to film. Women and Hollywood recognized Asante and other female trailblazers in entertainment at its NYC 10th Anniversary event last year.
Her latest film, “Where Hands Touch,” about a mixed-race girl (Amandla Stenberg) trying to survive in Nazi Germany, is expected to hit UK theaters later this year.
