Mission Impossible writer goes on new mission – two write and direct two novel adaptations for Columbia Pictures

According to Empire Online, David Koepp – who wrote MIssion Impossible and Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull – is in talks with Columbia to direct two films for the studio.

The first is titled Billionaire’s Vinegar, which is loosely based on a novel by Benjamin Wallace, called The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine, which revolves around a scandal that erupted when the authenticity of an auctioned cache of wine, supposedly from Thomas Jefferson’s stocks, was questioned.

Will Smith is one of six producers involved with ‘Vinegar’, so reports indicate that the film may be headed somewhere fast, including big box office. Koepp would co-write the script with John Kamps, if the deal goes through.

The multi-hyphenate is looking to write and direct the second project, called Article II, which will be adapted from a novel by Charles McCarry, titled Shelley’s Heart, about two lifelong friends who become bitter rivals when they end up on opposing sides of a presidential contest that’s won by computer fraud.