Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer have picked up screen rights to The Increment, a geopolitical thriller novel by David Ignatius, which will be published by WW Norton next year.

According to Variety, the title refers to a shadowy, elite group of British undercover intelligence operatives who are conscripted by a CIA agent to help a weapons scientist defect from Iran.

Ignatius' manuscript got high marks in the literature community for suspense and characters, but some were surprised that Disney made the deal: The material is very dark, and the fact that an Iran invasion is woven into the plot could be a potential hot potato by the time the book is developed into a film.