New Regency & Ubisoft Hire ‘Everest’ Scribe Sheldon Turner For ‘Splinter Cell’

EXCLUSIVE: Sheldon Turner has been hired by New Regency and Ubisoft to write a new draft of Splinter Cell, turning this video game adaptation into a reunion of another movie that hasn’t happened yet. I’ll explain. Turner wrote the Sony Pictures film Everest, about the attempt by George Mallory to be first to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Doug Liman is set to direct that film and Tom Hardy is starring in it. But the picture got postponed after another film called Everest took the hill first, this one about a 1996 climb that turned deadly when a blizzard hit just as the climbers were about to reach the top. Universal Pictures, Working Title and Cross Creek are in production right now, with Sam Worthington and Robin Wright recently joining Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, Jake Gyllenhaal, Martin Henderson, Emily Watson and Thomas Wright in the Baltasar Kormakur-directed film.

Even though they didn’t get to the start line on the project, Hardy, Liman and Turner must have had a good collaboration as they prepared. Hardy, who has long been attached as Splinter Cell star, first brought in Liman and now they’ve enlisted Turner. They will get this new version ready to shoot in August. American Hustle‘s Eric Warren Singer wrote the most recent draft. Turner is then scheduled to direct Borderland at Relativity. The hope is to get going with Hardy, Liman and Turner on Sony’s Everest next year, with Turner’s Vendetta partner Jennifer Klein producing. Turner is repped by CAA.