Paul Haggis might have been working hard on the script for Against All Enemies, the adaptation of Richard Clarke's memoir about the US government's failure to heed the warnings before 9/11, but he's sneaked another film into his list before that gets going.

He's got Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize Theron interested in an untitled mystery thriller that sees a veteran father going looking or his son, who has just come home from Iraq and gone AWOL. The script is based on a Playboy article called Death And Dishonour by Mark Boal, which chronicled the true story of a military father who rejected the Army's announcement about his son. He ended up finding a murder.

Haggis fictionalised the story with help from Boal and has penned the script. Jones is lined up to play the father, which Theron as a police office. If they can lock their deals in place, Haggis plans to call action in November.