Universal Pictures has attached Will Smith to star in a feature adaptation of the TV series It Takes a Thief. The Roland Kibbee-created series, which starred Robert Wagner, ran 1968-70.

Variety says Smith will play a charming rogue who is blackmailed by the government into doing covert larceny for the good of his country. Pic will put the professional thief in the employ of the CIA.

Smith and his Overbrook Entertainment partner James Lassiter have come aboard to produce the film with Kevin Misher, John Davis and Joe Singer. Four Brothers scribes David Elliot and Paul Lovett are set to write the script.