Beacon Pictures has set Josh Lucas to star and Kip Williams (Door in the Floor) to direct an untitled thriller inspired by the Bernard-Henri Levy book WHO KILLED DANIEL PEARL?, says Variety.

Beacon CEO Charlie Lyons will produce, and the production will begin this fall, with scouting under way in Morocco, Dubai, India, Libya and Tunisia.

In the book, the French author-philosopher described his daring journey into Pakistan to investigate the kidnapping and murder of the Wall Street Journal correspondent. Levy is convinced Pearl may have uncovered complicity between the Pakistani secret service and Al Qaeda.

Scripted by New York Times Magazine foreign correspondent Peter Landesman, the film has fictionalized the Pearl character (Beacon did not want to infringe on a film project based on a book by the journalist's widow, Marianne Pearl). Levy, too, has been changed into an American TV newsman who sheds his media celebrity trappings to find answers in a terrorist hotbed.

The project was set up with Ed Zwick directing, but he was in Africa filming Blood Diamond, and Beacon's Lyons wanted to get a timely film into production. Williams will work on a polish of the script with Landesman.

Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz will executive produce with Beacon chairman Armyan Bernstein, Patrick Wachsberger, Robert Benmussa and Alain Sarde.