Judy Morris penning Muslim spy script

LONDON -- Multihyphenate Judy Morris has been tasked with penning a script based on the biography of Shrabani Basu, a Muslim secret agent who was awarded the George Cross and the Croix de Guerre by the British and French governments, respectively.

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An actress, director and producer in addition to her writing endeavors, Morris is more used to penning children's movies, having been a writer on both "Happy Feet" and "Babe: Pig In the City."

Backed by U.K.-based production and finance label Film and Music Entertainment, the $15 million picture is out to directors and aims to go into production before the end of the year.

F&ME co-chief Mike Downey described Basu as an unlikely hero. "She was certainly no Mata Hari," Downey said. "She was not a crack shot, not endowed with great physical skills and was a far cry from a spy novel prototype, and it is exactly these qualities that make her character totally suitable as the subject for a film. She is, in effect, an anti-spy. The spy who cannot lie."

Downey and company are in Berlin at the European Film Market meeting with financiers and partners on its fresh slate of productions.

Other titles on F&ME's roster include "Streetkids United," directed by veteran documentarist Tim Pritchard; the long-gestating adaptation of Clifford Irving's biography of notorious art cheat Elmyr de Hory, "FAKE!"; and Dominic Murphy's "A Gift From the Culture," the director's follow-up to last year's Berlinale entry "White Lightnin'."