rumored to play Rapp, including Gerard Butler, Colin Farrell and Matthew Fox, but the studio announced some major changes in June 2011. One of these changes was that although the first film in the series was initially going to be based on an earlier novel, it would now be based it on a later instalment, American Assassin, which explains how Rapp became a CIA officer. Another change was that the leading man would, consequently, be younger, to reflect Rapp at a younger age and still at the beginning of his covert career. On 19 January 2016 CBS Films announced that American Assassin would be directed by Michael Cuesta and written by Stephen Schiff. Production needed to start by April 30, 2016, or the rights to the film would revert to the Vince Flynn Estate. On May 10, 2016, Deadline announced that 24-year-old actor Dylan O'Brien was in talks to play Rapp, with the "idea that O’Brien’s Mitch Rapp is college aged, and the hope is the actor grows as the series progresses." The movie filmed between the months of September and December 2016, with shooting taking place in London, Rome, Valletta, Phuket, and Birmingham. The action film follows the rise of Rapp (O’Brien), a CIA black ops recruit under the instruction of Cold War veteran Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton). The pair is then enlisted by CIA Deputy Director Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan) to investigate a wave of apparently random attacks on both military and civilian targets. Together, the three discover a pattern in the violence leading them to a joint mission with a lethal Iranian agent (Shiva Negar) to stop a mysterious operative (Taylor Kitsch) intent on starting a World War in the Middle East. See also References Fictional assassins Fictional vigilantes Fictional Central Intelligence Agency personnel Fictional Krav Maga practitioners Fictional Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners Fictional mixed martial artists Literary characters introduced in 2000 Characters in American novels of the 21st century Fictional American secret agents