MUMBAI: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc (MGM) Pictures, together with Relativity Media, LLC (RMLLC), has secured the rights to Robert Ludlum's novel The Matarese Circle.

RMLLC is a financing, consulting and production company that utilises both traditional and non-traditional channels in order to raise production and distribution funds, both for major studios and independent production entities.

Additionally, MGM and RMLCC have also closed a deal with two-time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington to star in the film, which is an adaptation of the suspense thriller and bears the same name.

Writers of 3:10 to Yuma, Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, have been roped in to write the film's script.

Jeffrey Weiner, Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Nick Wechsler, producers of The Bourne Ultimatum, Transformers and North Country, respectively, will serve as producers for the film.

Tucker Tooley will oversee the creative for Relativity.

Ludlum's The Matarese Circle is set during the Cold War period. The book pairs two rival spies, one from the CIA and the other from the KGB. The rival spies bury their hatchet for the moment because it is only they who are smart enough to have the killing abilities to go up against an international circle of killers called the Matarese.