Over a year ago we reported on the news that the popular and talented writer/producer/director, J.J. Abrams, was going to be producing an untitled diamond heist movie based on an article published in Wired magazine. Now, over 14 months later, the project is finally gearing up with a screenwriter already being tapped.

Heat Vision Blog reports that Phil Alden Robinson (Field of Dreams) will write the script for the yet-to-be-titled heist movie. Abrams is still producing the project through his Bad Robot company, along with Circle of Confusion. Paramount acquired the rights to the article "The Untold Story of the World's Biggest Diamond Heist," by Joshua Davis, back in March of last year when we first reported on the project.

The diamond heist in question took place in Antwerp, Belgium, and it saw a crew of Italian thieves somehow get passed 10 layers of security to the vault underneath the Antwerp Diamond Center, where they stole a reported $100 million worth of goods including diamonds, gold and all sorts of other jewelry.

The ringleader of the crew was imprisoned for 10 years back in 2003 and remained tight-lipped for some time about what really happened. However, Jackson managed to snag a series of interviews with him (spanning six years!) and eventually got the truth about how the heist was pulled off. Jackson's article is available online over at Wired so you can head over there if you're interested in getting the full story before it gets translated onto the big-screen.

Robinson is probably best known for having written Field of Dreams, the Kevin Costner-starring baseball movie which earned Robinson an Academy Award nomination. Along with writing the upcoming Sinatra biopic, Robinson also has experience with heist movies as he wrote the 1992 Robert Redford film, Sneakers, which was about a team who test security systems by breaking into banks. Abrams has found the appropriate writer, indeed.

There's currently no director for the untitled heist movie, although it's not out of the realm of possibility that Robinson might direct as well as write. It's doubtful Abrams will direct the film himself; he will most likely stick to producing it as he's doing with projects like Mission: Impossible IV and the Harrison Ford comedy, Morning Glory.

Do you think Abrams has made a good choice with Robinson to write this heist movie? Would you like to see Robinson direct as well or would you like someone else to take on the directorial duties (Abrams preferably)?

Source: Heat Vision Blog, Wired and Nick Waplington (for Antwerp photo)