Spike Lee 'closing deal' to direct terrorism thriller Nagasaki Deadline

Spike Lee is finalising a deal to direct the terrorism thriller Nagasaki Deadline, in which an emotionally damaged FBI agent must decipher clues based on historical events in order to avert disaster. Film company Alcon Entertainment yesterday confirmed a story that was originally broken by the Deadline blog . Nagasaki Deadline will be Lee's first dramatic tale since 2008's Miracle at St Anna , his riposte to Clint Eastwood's second world war tales Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. It centres on a desperate race to thwart two terrorist attacks on American soil. The agent heading up the investigations begins to realise that he must think outside the box and consider theories that the crime is tied to historical events if he is to save lives. The venture has been gestating for some time and is not a Lee pet project. It was previously slated to be directed by Martin Campbell but was dropped after 9/11. For Lee, it looks like similar mainstream territory to his 2006 thriller Inside Man rather than the more polemical fare with which he tends to attract comment. However, in the wake of the recent foiled Times Square plot , Nagasaki Deadline offers plenty of potential controversy. Screenwriters David and Peter Griffiths are polishing their own original script.