NPR's Ira Glass, Endgame team up

Duo will develop Arthur Phillips short story

By MICHAEL FLEMING

Ira Glass, host of NPR's "This American Life," is teaming with Alissa Shipp and Endgame Entertainment topper James D. Stern to develop a pic based on the Arthur Phillips short story "Wenceslas Square."

Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely are penning the script.

The short story, which aired on Glass' radio program last summer, chronicles the lives of two spies who fall in love while on separate missions. It was originally published in "Wild East: Stories From the Last Frontier."

Glass, Shipp and Stern will produce, and Endgame's Wendy Japhet and Doug Hansen will be exec producers.

The project is the first feature that Glass and Shipp will develop under the This American Life banner. The radio program is co-owned by Glass and Chicago Public Radio; a TV offshoot, also titled "This American Life," bowed on Showtime in 2007.

Glass' show has seeded several movie projects in the past, including the Paul Feig-directed Warner Bros. comedy "Unaccompanied Minors," on which Glass was exec producer.

Markus and McFeely co-wrote the first two "Chronicles of Narnia" films and the upcoming Joe Johnston-directed "Captain America."

Phillips is the author of novels including "The Egyptologist" and "Prague."