The Hollywood Reporter has brought word that Universal Pictures and Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels are teaming up for an adaptation of the 2018 biographical novel The Operator by Navy SEAL Robert O’Neill.
Universal and Michaels’ Broadway Video production banner have purchased the rights to O’Neill’s novel, with Kristen Lowe and Mika Pryce overseeing the project for the studio.
Michael Russell Gunn, who previously worked on the Aaron Sorkin-created HBO dramedy The Newsroom and the Kiefer Sutherland-led political thriller Designated Survivor, has been attached to pen the screenplay for the novel.
Michaels, who is known for having created the long-running sketch series Saturday Night Live, left a three-decade movie partnership with Paramount Pictures last year for a new deal with Universal Pictures, giving the studio a first-look deal with his production banner Broadway Video, including development on the upcoming comedy Baby Nurse starring SNL vets Leslie Jones and Colin Jost.