Michael Fassbender is starring and producing Lionsgate's spy thriller Malko, a film based on Gerard de Villiers' action-spy novel series S.A.S. 

Fassbender, last seen in X-Men: Dark Phoenix as Magneto, will portray Malko Linge, an Austrian nobleman and freelance CIA operative who spends his formative years in a special Nazi work camp for captured spies. A gentleman warrior without a country, he has his own moral code and is best known for his wit and will to live.

Lionsgate has bought the rights to de Villiers' entire catalog of espionage thrillers, serialised across 200 books in order to build a franchise. The first film will be based on the book, Checkpoint Charlie. 

Eric Warren Singer, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for American Hustle, will be adapting the script for the screen.