Reacher star Willa Fitzgerald has joined Russell Crowe in the cast for espionage thriller Billion Dollar Spy.
According to Deadline, Fitzgerald - who played Roscoe Conklin in the first season of the Prime Video show - and Crowe will be joined by Harry Lawtey in the upcoming film, which is set during the Cold War.
Based on David E Hoffman’s 2015 non-fiction book, The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal, the film tells the story of Adolf Tolkachev, a Soviet citizen who provided intelligence for the CIA.
Related: Reacher star Willa Fitzgerald had a "rare feeling" filming Strange Darling
Crowe will take on the role of Tolkachev, who worked in the Soviet Union as an electronics engineer. Lawtey, who has starred in Industry and Joker: Folie à Deux, will play the role of Tolkachev’s CIA handler Tom Lenihan, with Fitzgerald playing his wife.
Stephen Gaghan, who won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2001 for Traffic, has reportedly written the latest draft of the script, with Amma Asante - best known for Belle and A United Kingdom - attached to direct.
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“Set against the high-stakes backdrop of the late Cold War, Billion Dollar Spy follows Adolf Tolkachev as he risks everything to pass thousands of pages of top-secret Soviet intelligence to the United States,” reads the synopsis.
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“Despite repeated rejections by a wary CIA, Tolkachev persisted, embodying the courage to stand against a regime that betrayed its own people. Finally finding an ally in CIA agent Tom Lenihan, Tolkachev was able to shift the balance of power.”
The logline continues by saying that Tolkachev’s story “resonates deeply” in an “era when resistance and bravery” are more “relevant than ever”, with the figure being described as an “ordinary man whose extraordinary bravery made him the Pentagon’s most valuable spy.”
Fitzgerald, who recently starred in Strange Darling and Wildcat, shared a post on Instagram to express her excitement at the project, writing: “Incredibly excited to dive into this one, a story that’s becoming only more relevant by the day.”
Billion Dollar Spy has no release date. Reacher seasons 1-3 stream on Prime Video.
Reporter, Digital Spy George is a freelance writer who specialises in Movies and TV. After graduating with a degree in Film Studies and Journalism from De Montfort University, in which he analysed the early works of Richard Linklater for his dissertation, he wrote for several websites for GRV Media. His film tastes vary from blockbusters like Mission: Impossible and John Wick to international directors such as Paolo Sorrentino and Hirokazu Kore-eda, and has attended both the London and Berlin film festivals.
