Deadline is reporting that Paul Rudd (Ant-Man, This is 40) is set to headline the World War II thriller The Catcher Was a Spy in a role originally earmarked for George Clooney.
The film is based on the life of Moe Berg, an Ivy Leaguer who spoke twelve languages and spent 15 years as an average baseball player for teams like the Chicago White Sox and the Washington Senators. Thing is, that whole time he was moonlighting as a spy for the OSS who helped America get the edge on the Germans during the race for the Atomic Bomb.
Screenwriter Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan, Thor: The Dark World) adapted Nicholas Dawidoff’s bestselling book, with Ben Lewin (The Sessions) set to direct. Kevin Frakes and Mark Fasano of PalmStar Media are producing and financing The Catcher Was a Spy alongside Animus Films’ Jim Young and Tatiana Kelly of Serena Films, and Michael Bederman.
Rudd will reprise his role of Scott Lang/Ant-Man in next week’s Captain America: Civil War.
