Jeffrey Nachmanoff replaces Ed Zwick as director of 'American Assassin'

This is how Hollywood works. Big name director becomes attached to a for-hire gig, then the opportunity to complete a passion project arises and suddenly there's a job opening. Such is the case with Ed Zwick(Love & Other Drugs), who was hired last June to helm an adaptation of American Assassin, based on Vince Flynn's best selling novels centered on unorthodox CIA agent Mitch Rapp. With Zwick's schedule tightening up due to his also being brought on to direct The Great Wall, he's been forced to drop out.

Deadline now reports that Jeffrey Nachmanoff is taking over the directing duties on the film, a prequel that will show how tragedy reshaped Rapp from a college professor and athlete into a CIA endorsed terrorist hunter. Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz wrote the latest draft of the script, but with both now gone it remains to be seen if Nachmanoff will take a crack at it.

Nachmanoff most recently directed the underrated Don Cheadle thriller, Traitor, which follows some similar territory. CBS Films, still riding high on the success of The Woman in Black, clearly has aims on turning this into their own lucrative franchise. Hopefully we'll start getting some casting info soon.