According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sony Pictures is negotiating to acquire film rights to counter-terrorism expert Richard Clarke's first novel, "The Scorpion Gate", which Putnam Adult will publish in October.

John Calley will produce the project, which the studio hopes will become the first in a series of John Clancy-style political thrillers.

The realistic geopolitical thriller is set five years in the future as oil-hungry forces in Washington are ready to reshape the map of the Middle East to further their own ends by launching a global nuclear war. The plot involves a fictional takeover of the House of Saud by extremists.