Sony has acquired the rights to a series of sci-fi novels by author Jeff Somers which center on the character of Avery Cates. The first book in the series is titled The Electric Church and set in a near future
where Earth is run by a federation of nations and governed by a
council. Cates is a bodyguard-assassin who, in Church, is forced
by the governing police force to kill the founder of a church that
converts people by transplanting their brains into pliant robotic
bodies.
Trevor Sands, who has recently been working on the upcoming Hyperion for director Scott Derrickson, has been hired to adapt the book. So far, Somers has written three books in the series. Jimmy Miller (She’s Out of My League) is producing the film, which is working under the title The Avery Cates Project.