Michael Brandt and Derek Haas have been hired to write the thriller, Deceit for Universal Pictures.

The film, based on the James Siegel novel, centers on a newspaper reporter busted for fabricating stories, reports Variety. Afterward, while working for a small-town paper, he stumbles onto a dark conspiracy stemming from government radiation testing in the 1950s; but given his history, he can't get anyone to believe him.

Warner Books will put the novel, Deceit on sale August 9th; there's no production schedule yet.