Denzel Washington is set to lead the latest film adapted from a Robert Ludlum novel called The Matarese Circle (Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com).

The film has two agents, one American and one Russian, who have to team up together as they try to take down an unknown group of assassins. There's a twist though, and a nice one too, each of the agents have been fighting against each other for years, and each has killed someone close to the other.

What are the chances of that? Well hey, it's a spy thriller. So suspend your disbelief for a moment and think of the character dynamics between the two agents. That's the exciting part. You can guarantee that they will slowly start to discover what each is hiding, and at the most inconvenient part of the story they will be pitched against each other. Fantastic.

Yahoo News reports that Denzel Washington is being pitched as the lead American agent, and that Michael Brandt and Derek Haas are writing the script - they've previously written 3:10 to Yuma and Wanted, so a good track record there...okay, they also wrote 2 Fast 2 Furious and Spy Hunter, as well as currently writing The A-Team. A mixed bag then.

Still all that sounds good, and what's exciting for us, Washington and Ludlum is that the Matarese has a sequel novel, so we're already sniffing a franchise here, although would Washington really get involved in a franchise/trilogy?