Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Edge Of Tomorrow) has been tapped to direct Rise And Kill First, a limited series based on a chapter in Ronen Bergman‘s acclaimed non-fiction book of the same name.
The show will detail how Israel’s national intelligence agency, Mossad, reached out to Otto Skorzney, a former Nazi Waffen SS lieutenant colonel and a favorite of Hitler’s, in a moment of desperation to take down an existential threat to Israel’s existence.
The story will unfold against the backdrop of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser‘s plan to secretly hire a team of former Nazi scientists to build a momentous missile program that could possibly destroy Israel. Israel tries to prevent the threat but can’t eliminate the danger, which results in a young Mossad turning to Hitler’s go-to man in a Hail Mary attempt.
Published in early 2018, the book saw Bergman receive the Economist Book of the Year and the 2018 National Jewish Book Award for what became a celebrated and notably comprehensive text. The author also received the Sokolov Award, which is considered the highest Israeli honor in journalism.
The project will be produced by Story Syndicate, who have been behind a number of high profile documentaries recently, including I’ll Be Gone In The Dark and Britney vs. Spears. Dan Cogan, Liz Garbus, and Abot Hameiri will oversee for the company.
Cogan and Garbus described the project as “one of the strangest, most surprising, and dramatic true stories” they’ve seen in some time. Liman added that “this is the ultimate spy story, replete with the original James Bond, a nascent Mossad and Israel facing its extinction.”
Liman has had a long career of varying projects, but is probably best known for his action movies. He had a poor 2021 with the release of disappointing pandemic heist thriller Locked Down and survival thriller Chaos Walking, which had a troubled production history, but he’s also been attached to direct Tom Cruise‘s uber ambitious outer space-shot Space X project for a while.
Rise And Kill First is a slight detour from Liman’s usual output, although he has made projects based on true stories before, such as 2010 political thriller Fair Game and his last collaboration with Cruise, 2017’s American Made. There should be plenty of interest in a true story with this many interesting threads to pull at.
#Peace.Love.RiseAndKillFirst
