Danny Boyle is returning to the heist genre, signing on to direct Smash and Grab for Pathe and Fox Searchlight Pictures.

The project is a narrative adaptation of this summer's documentary Smash & Grab: The Story of The Pink Panthers, directed by Havana Marking. Here's the documentary's official description.

"Their crimes resemble high-octane Hollywood action movies: a sports car speeds through a Dubai shopping mall, crashing into the windows of a Graff jewelry store. Masked, gun-wielding men jump out of the car, and stuff fistfuls of diamonds into their satchels before screeching off. In London, they took all of three minutes to make off with $30 million in diamonds. They are captured not in person, but on surveillance tapes that record their astonishing lightning strikes with hypnotic accuracy.

Playing out like a noir thriller spiced with cutting-edge animation and shocking real surveillance footage, Havana Marking's Smash & Grab is an exclusive all-access pass into the mysterious world of international jewel thieves. Dubbed The Pink Panthers, the formidable Balkan gang has stolen nearly a billion dollars worth of jewels from boutiques in the world's most opulent cities, including Geneva, Paris, London, Dubai and Tokyo. Through never-before-seen interviews with key gang members, this provocative documentary delves into the gang's incredible history and introduces the viewer to the global police forces who work furiously to stop them. Beyond the glitz of the Panthers' incredible heists, Smash & Grab exposes dark truths about the illicit diamond trade and the world's most ruthless mafia networks."

Pathe and Fox Searchlight will co-produce and co-finance the adaptation, with Christian Colson prodcuing. Insiders claim that Danny Boyle saw the documentary and became interested in making a feature based on this story, which lead to Fox Searchlight's involvement. The studio has distributed almost all of the director's films, including Trance, which also centered on a heist, 127 Hours and the Best Picture winner Slumdog Millionaire. No production schedule was given.