XYZ Films, Time Inc Studios and producer Tamir Ardon have hired Alex Holmes to direct the recently announced feature about auto industry maverick John DeLorean.

Holmes, who wrote and directed episodes of BBC and HBO’s acclaimed House Of Saddam, will direct from the screenplay he is developing with Rob Warr. The pair previously collaborated on BBC’s BAFTA Award winner Dunkirk.

The story recounts the latter years of the auto mogul’s life when he was arrested for drug trafficking by the FBI and eventually acquitted on grounds of entrapment.

The producers acquired the underlying rights package from DeLorean’s son and executor of his estate Zachary. The producers secured additional rights include DeLorean’s unpublished memoirs, magazine articles and Hillel Levin’s book Grand Delusions.

In an emphatic show of faith Zachary DeLorean said, “There are other producers out there trying to make a movie about my father but this is the only one I’m standing behind, and the only one the DeLorean estate is allowing.”

“As a kid John DeLorean seemed an almost mythic figure to me.” Holmes said. “His dreams brought him head-to-head with both the British and American establishment and they destroyed him. I’m excited to get the chance to make a crime thriller with such a great tragic hero at its heart.”

“We are fortunate to have secured a director whose filmmaking sensibilities are a perfect fit with our vision for DeLorean,” XYZ Films added.

Holmes has also lined up an adaptation of Robert Mazur’s book The Infiltrator about Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel for 2929 Productions, as well as direct The Interpretation Of Murder for Warner Bros.

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