British writer-director Amma Asante has been tapped to helm The Billion Dollar Sky for Walden Media and Weed Road Pictures. It will be an adaptation of the book of the same name by David E. Hoffman.

The Billion Dollar Spy is “the true story of a man who became the Pentagon’s most valuable spy during the last years of the Cold War. Despite numerous rejections by a cautious CIA on the lookout for undercover KGB agents, Adolf G. Tolkachev, the chief designer at the USSR’s Research Institute of Radio Engineering, handed over tens of thousands of pages of highly classified documents to the U.S. Tolkachev quickly became the crown jewel of the CIA’s spy network, though in return, his greatest ask was for gifts for his son. For years, Tolkachev and his handler  successfully eluded the KGB in its own backyard, until the day came when a shocking betrayal put them all at risk.”

Hoffman, a contributing editor for The Washington Post now, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.

“We are so proud to have Amma at the helm of this prestigious project. She is an incredibly talented director who will bring her unique vision and experience to this film,”  said Frank Smith, president/CEO of Walden Media. Assante, who directed Gugu Mbatha-Raw in Belle and David Oyelowo in A United Kingdom is the director of the upcoming British war romance pic, Where Hands Touch, starring Amandla Stenberg.

Deadline first reported the news.