‘Mr. Robot’ Duo Sam Esmail and Rami Malek Are Teaming Up for a Muslim Undercover FBI Agent Thriller

Mr. Robot dream team of show creator Sam Esmail and star Rami Malek are set to reteam for a thriller for Universal. Esmail will direct Malek, who will play an undercover Muslim FBI agent in the adaptation of a memoir, American Radical.

Esmail is set to helm and Malek will headline American Radical, based on Tamer Elnoury and Kevin Maurer‘s memoir of the same name, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Esmail and Malek will both produce the adaptation along with Chad Hamilton of Anonymous Content.

Published in October, American Radical follows Elnoury, a pseudonym of an American Muslim police officer who joins a counterterrorism unit after 9/11. The memoir chronicles his infiltrating of an al-Qaeda group that had designs on an attack, as well as his struggles as a proud Muslim-American patriot.

Here’s the book’s synopsis via Amazon:

A longtime undercover agent, Tamer Elnoury joined an elite counterterrorism unit after September 11. Its express purpose is to gain the trust of terrorists whose goals are to take out as many Americans in as public and as devastating a way possible. It’s a furious race against the clock for Tamer and his unit to stop them before they can implement their plans. Yet as new as this war still is, the techniques are as old as time: listen, record, and prove terrorist intent.

Due to his ongoing work for the FBI, Elnoury writes under a pseudonym. An Arabic-speaking Muslim American, a patriot, a hero: To many Americans, it will be a revelation that he and his team even exist, let alone the vital and dangerous work they do keeping all Americans safe.

It’s no surprise that Esmail’s prodigal return to feature filmmaking will star his Mr. Robot lead Rami Malek. Esmail made a splash in the movie industry with his directorial debut Comet in 2014, but has since worked almost exclusively in TV, crafting his harrowing noir masterpiece Mr. Robot. The series has garnered Esmail a handful of accolades, including six Emmy nominations and an Emmy for Best Actor for Malek.

American Radical seems like a perfect fit for both Esmail and Malek. Malek has spent the past three years playing a mentally unstable anarchist hacker, but will likely find a common thread in the noble outcast of Elnoury. Malek’s Egyptian background makes him a strong fit for the role as well. Esmail seems to revel in directing troubled antiheroic men, so American Radical seems like a match.

American Radical has no set release date.

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