Cheadle, Pearce go undercover for "Traitor"

By Borys Kit

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce have signed to topline the espionage thriller "Traitor."

The story centers on a CIA operative working undercover with a terrorist group who becomes a terrorist suspect. Cheadle will play the undercover agent, and Pearce is an FBI agent investigating terrorist activities.

Jeffrey Nachmanoff will direct the project from his own script, which is based on an original idea from actor/comic/writer Steve Martin. Overture Films will distribute the feature.

Cheadle also will produce, along with Mandeville's David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman, as well as Jeff Silver.

Hoberman and Lieberman have been developing the project since early 2002, when Martin approached the duo on the set of "Bringing Down the House," which they were producing. They set up the project at Walt Disney Pictures, where their company has a first-look deal, but "Traitor" was among the projects dropped in the regime change when president of production Nina Jacobson was replaced by Oren Aviv.

Hoberman and Lieberman never lost sight of the project, seeing it through various incarnations until Cheadle came aboard. Nachmanoff, who made a name for himself writing big-budget fare like "The Day After Tomorrow," offered a take that impressed the producers.

"He did a lot of research; his first bill to us was for 15 books," Lieberman said. "This is in no way jingoistic."

Said Hoberman: "The movie deals with the subject of terrorism evenhandedly. It's not black-and-white but gray and religious-based."