Gaumont has acquired the bestselling Joseph Finder novel "Paranoia" and set Barry Levy to script an adaptation.
Alexandra Milchan will produce.
Story centers on a young man who funds a lavish retirement party for a co-worker with company funds and is caught by his boss. Accused of embezzlement, he agrees to spy for the boss to avoid prosecution. He is forced to infiltrate a rival company and steal information on a top-secret project.
Levy scripted the Columbia Pictures drama "Vantage Point," and just adapted "Button Man" for DreamWorks and producer Michael De Luca. Finder's novels include "High Crimes," which became a 2002 Fox film that starred Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd.
For Milchan, the deal is the second recent project with Gaumont, where she is also teamed with director Alexandre Aja to develop "The Contractor," a drama being scripted by Ian Jeffers.
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