After leaving the director’s chair on Tom Cruise‘s Mission: Impossible 3 Joe Carnahan moved over to direct Smokin’ Aces for Universal and he now has find his follow-up to that film, an untitled feature based on the life of Will Wright, a high school prodigy who at 17 was the catalyst for a $70 million narcotics empire.
Variety reports that Carnahan will team with Joseph F. Alexandre to script the story of Wright, who grew up in Blaine, Wash., and seemed the ideal overachieving teenager: The handsome National Merit Scholar was drafted by the Seattle Mariners. Meanwhile, Wright was caught by feds in a sting operation and revealed to be the mastermind of an international drug ring and money-laundering operation. He served eight years and was released two years ago at age 26.
The article goes on to say that Wright is cooperating with the project and it is described as a coming-of-age tale in the style of Catch Me if You Can.
