Universal Pictures has acquired the rights to the Gabriel Allon novel series by Daniel Silva for a new spy movie franchise. Former NBC/Universal CEO Jeff Zucker will be on board as a producer.

The books center on Gabriel Allon, a former Mossad agent who killed six of the terrorists responsible for murdering six Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. These days, he makes his living as an art restorer, although he still takes on the occasional covert operation.

Universal is currently seeking writers for the project. The studio had previously tried to adapt one of Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon books, The Messenger, back in 2007, with Pierre Morel attached to direct. That deal never materialized. 11 of Daniel Silva's 14 novels feature the Gabriel Allon character, with the first being The Kill Artist in 2000. The studio isn't sure yet which book to focus on for this adaptation.

Daniel Silva's next Gabriel Allon novel, Portrait of a Spy, will be published in July by HarperCollins.