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EXCLUSIVE:Tom Shepherd has been hired to pen Matt Helm, a film adapted from Don Hamilton’s prolific spy novel series that has been in the works at Paramount with Bradley Cooper attached to star. George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are attached as executive producers, and Steven Spielberg is involved in some capacity.
There are 27 published Matt Helm novels that Hamilton wrote from 1960’s Death of a Citizen to 1993’s The Damagers; the author died in 2006. Four of the books were made into films in the 1960s starring Dean Martin, which were more spoofs of the source material. Hamilton’s Helm was a U.S. special agent/assassin during World War II who left the life to raise a family in Santa Fe but is forced to return to his former life.
Shepherd most recently penned The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle, starring Robert Downey Jr. and directed by Stephen Gaghan and set for an April 2019 release via Universal. He also wrote Hey, Stella, the 2012 Black List script about Marlon Brando’s struggle to get the Stanley Kowalski role in A Streetcar Named Desire, and he sold an Agatha Christie adventure spec to Sony.
On the TV side, Shepherd adapted Jennet Conant’s The Irregulars for Anonymous Content and Paramount TV.
He is repped by WME, Think Tank Management and Jackoway Tyerman.
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