Variety is reporting that the political thriller Backstabbing for Beginners is trading one dystopian YA star for another as The Divergent Series‘ Theo James replaces Hunger Games lead Josh Hutcherson. Academy Award winner Sir Ben Kingsley (The Walk, Iron Man 3) is still attached to co-star.
Inspired by Michael Soussan’s critically-acclaimed memoir, “Backstabbing for Beginners: My Crash Course in International Diplomacy,” the film tells the story of Michael (James), a young idealist who lands his dream job as a program coordinator for the U.N.’s Oil for Food program. He is thrown into an already fraught post-war Iraq where government agents and power-hungry countries are circling Iraq’s oil reserves like sharks. He seeks answers from the one person he thinks he can trust, Pasha (Kingsley), his boss, a seasoned diplomat. The more Michael learns, however, the more he suspects a conspiracy at the highest level. The only way out will be to expose it all — risking his own life, his mentor’s career, and the life of the Kurdish woman he loves.
Backstabbing for Beginners, an official Danish – Canadian co-production, is produced by Lars Knudsen & Jay Van Hoy (Beginners, upcoming The Witch) of Parts & Labor, Malene Blenkov & Nikolaj Vibe Michelsen of Creative Alliance and Daniel Bekerman (The Witch) of Scythia Films. It will be directed by Per Fly (The Inheritance, Monica Z) and co-written by Daniel Pyne (The Manchurian Candidate, The Sum of All Fears) and Per Fly, with shooting originally scheduled to begin this month.
(Photo credit: WENN.com)
