According to Variety, Lions Gate is gearing up The Truth Machine, optioning James Halperin's sci-fi thriller and setting it up with Ithaka Entertainment's Andrew Weiner and Braxton Pope along with Fritz Manger and Bill McDonald ("Rome"). Ron Shusett (co-creator of the Alien franchise) and George Lee Marshall ("Dark Side") will adapt the novel.

The Truth Machine examines what the world would be like after the construction of a perfect lie detector, with the character who invented the machine committing a crime and then submitting to his own creation. Lions Gate vice chair Michael Burns brought the project into the company and will oversee with the Lions Gate production team headed by production prexy Michael Paseornek.

Shusett and Marshall first partnered in 1995 and have penned a half-dozen feature scripts and TV pilots together. Shusett co-wrote the story to Alien vs. Predator, co-wrote the screenplay and produced Total Recall and was exec producer of Minority Report.

Ithaka has several projects at Lions Gate, including Party Boys, written by Josh Lieb, and Larry Brown's The Rabbit Factory, a novel Thom Jones is adapting.