Paramount sets "Diamond" with J.J. Abrams

LOS ANGELES– "The Untold Story of the World's Biggest Diamond Heist," a Wired magazine article by Joshua Davis, is on its way to the big screen.

Paramount Pictures has purchased film rights to the article, and J.J. Abrams ("Alias," "Lost," "Fringe") will take on the project through his Bad Robot production company as a producer and, potentially, as the film's director. No writer has yet been hired.

The article, which will be published in the April issue of Wired, describes the true story of an unprecedented diamond heist in Antwerp, Belgium, and the crew that pulled it off.

In early 2003, a small group of Italian thieves miraculously circumvented 10 layers of security to access a vault beneath the Antwerp Diamond Center and make off with a purported $100 million in diamonds, gold and jewelry. (The actual value is still a mystery.)

Over six years, Davis scored a series of interviews with the ringleader, incarcerated in a Belgian prison, who finally divulged, in French, just how it was done. Davis acquired the subject's life rights in the process.

Abrams, whose "Star Trek" reboot will hit theaters in May, is also producing the Aline Brosh McKenna-penned comedy "Morning Glory" and "Mystery on Fifth Avenue," derived from a New York Times article written by Penelope Green.

Davis' Wired article "Deep Sea Cowboys" is being spun into a screenplay by David Ayer for a potential DreamWorks film produced by frequent Abrams collaborators Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.