Casting: Jonathan Rhys Meyers takes lead in spy thriller Damascus Cover

News from Berlin with The Hollywood Reporter stating that Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers is set to take the lead in spy thriller Damascus Cover.

The film, which begins production this week in Morocco, is set in 1989 Berlin and centres on the true story of a veteran spy who is sent undercover in Syria to smuggle a chemical weapons scientist and his family out of the country.

Daniel Zelik Berk is in the directors chair, with Rhys Meyers joined by Olivia Thirlby, John Hurt, Igal Naor, and Navid Negahban on the film.

Speaking on his casting Rhys Meyers said “I’m enormously excited about this role. This was a hugely significant time in the conflict in the Middle East, post-Cold War and with the collapse of the Berlin Wall when an amount of spies were redeployed to the Middle East, where the theatre of covert operations would now take precedence.”