Ben Stiller to direct, co-star with Cate Blanchett in The Champions adaptation

Ben Stiller is set to star and direct the 1960s espionage television series The Champions. Cate Blanchett is playing the other lead in the film. Her production house Dirty Films is producing the film along with Ben Stiller's label Red Hour Productions.

The Champions film, paying homage to the TV show by Dennis Spooner, follows three UN agents whose plane crashes in the Himalayas. Upon being rescued by an advanced civilisation secretly living in Tibet, they are gifted with enhanced intellectual and physical abilities. When the agents return to the outside world, they use their new superhuman abilities to become champions of law, order, and justice, reports variety.com.

Ben Stiller is working on the thriller Severance, a drama series he's directing and co-starring with Adam Scott and Patricia Arquette. He's also set to direct Bag Man, based on Rachel Maddow's podcast, London starring Oscar Isaac, and High Desert featuring Arquette.

Meanwhile, Cate Blanchett has wrapped filming on Eli Roth's video game adaptation Borderlands. She is currently working on Todd Field's drama Tar. She will be seen next in Guillermo del Toro's thriller Nightmare Alley and Adam McKay's environmental satire Don't Look Up.