Los Angeles, Jun 19: Actor Michael Fassbender is all set to star in and produce Lionsgate's spy thriller Malko. According to Variety, the film is based on Gerard de Villiers' action-spy novel series "S.A.S" and studio intends to launch a franchise with it. The 42-year-old actor, who most recently reprised his role of Magneto in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, will portray Malko Linge, an Austrian nobleman and freelance CIA operative who spent his formative years in a special Nazi work camp for captured spies. X-Men: Dark Phoenix: Fox Executives Say; We Were Wrong;, Throw Light on the Behind-The-Scenes Mishaps That Resulted in This Debacle

The character is described as a gentleman warrior without a country who works according to his own moral code and lives with a wicked wit and a lust for life. The studio has bought the rights to de Villiers' catalog of espionage thrillers, serialised through 200 books that have sold throughout the world.

The first film will be based on de Villiers' book Checkpoint Charlie, with Eric Warren Singer, the Oscar-nominated scribe of American Hustle, adapting the script. X-Men Dark Phoenix Movie Review: James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender Try Hard to Save the Badly Written Film

Fassbender will produce via his company DMC Film alongside Black Magic's Lars Sylvest, Kingsgate Films' Greg Shapiro and Rocket Science's Thorsten Schumacher, who developed the property with Sylvest and de Villiers.

Singer will also executive produce along with Jason Clark and Conor McCaughan.