Jason Bateman is going from Ozark to Dark Wire. The Emmy-winning actor/director has chosen his next project: a film adaptation of Joseph Cox’s upcoming novel, which tells the true story of the unprecedented FBI operation that took down more than 1,000 international criminals. How did they do it? With a fake telecommunications company, of course.
Anom, an encrypted phone company run by the FBI, served as the perfect honeypot for federal agents. Rather than hack into an existing encryption service used by criminals, the bureau could simply run their own, allowing messages meant to be secret to fall directly into their lap. The only hangup? They also had to run a good company — not as easy as it sounds.
Cox covered the Anom story extensively at Motherboard; his book on the subject is coming soon. Bateman, meanwhile, will next be seen in the Taron Egerton airport thriller Carry-On. He’ll direct Dark Wire from a screenplay by Matthew Orton (Operation Finale). Bateman will also produce the film, along with Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen, Dan Levine and Michael Costigan.
Dark Wire is ringing in to Netflix soon.
