Spooks film cast its lead!

Game of Thrones’ Kit Harington and Zero Dark Thirty actor Jennifer Ehle will be joining original star Peter Firth in the cast of the upcoming Spooks movie titled, Spooks: The Greater Good.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Harington, best known for playing Jon Snow in HBO series Game of Thrones, will star in the spy drama in the lead role of Will Crombie – Harry Pearce’s (Firth) protégé.

Ehle (The King’s Speech, Pride and Prejudice, Contagion), will play Dame Geraldine Maltby of intelligence service MI5.

The spy thriller – originally a TV drama for the BBC which ran for ten series – will open with terrorist Adam Qasim escaping from MI5 custody during a routine handover – with head of counter-terrorism, Harry Pearce, blamed.

When Pearce disappears one night off a bridge into the Thames, his protégé Will Crombie is called in to help uncover a conspiracy which stretches from Vietnam to the Mediterranean.

Shine Pictures’ Stephen Garrett said: “We’ve set out to make a gripping, cinematic, contemporary spy thriller – one that builds on the history of the show and its legacy of questioning the world around us, but which also delivers as a standalone film for a new, global audience.”

Altitude Film Sales will handle worldwide sales of the movie. Managing director Mike Runagall said the cast gives the movie “all the right elements for the international market as a gripping, high-concept espionage thriller with global stakes, a classy, award-winning cast and strong franchise potential.”

Produced by Shine and Kudos, the movie will be directed by Bharat Nalluri and written by Spooks series 9 and 10 writers, Jonathan Brackley and Sam Vincent. Jane Featherstone and Stephen Garrett will be producing for Shine Pictures.

Spooks: The Greater Good will begin filming in early 2014.