Jim Thompson Thriller ‘The Ideal Man,’ About CIA Agent Turned Thai Silk King Who Disappeared, Set at Foreign Concept Entertainment (EXCLUSIVE)

Foreign Concept Entertainment is developing “The Ideal Man,” a thriller centered on Jim Thompson — the former CIA operative who built one of Thailand’s most recognized lifestyle brands before vanishing without explanation in 1967.

The script is set during the Vietnam War, with the story hinging on Thompson’s suspicious disappearance at the conflict’s height and the range of suspects implicated in the case.

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Principal photography is expected to begin in Bangkok in mid-2027. A director is being finalized. The project is being shopped to buyers at the Cannes Film Market.

The Los Angeles and Vancouver-based company has tapped Dorothy Kozak Snoke, repped by Zero Gravity, to write the screenplay. Snoke is adapting the script from Joshua Kurlantzick’s biography “The Ideal Man: The Tragedy of Jim Thompson and the American Way of War.” Snoke and Michael Belyea are producing.

Belyea is an independent producer based in Los Angeles and Vancouver who focuses on international storytelling.  He previously worked at UTA, 20th Century Fox and Sony Pictures. Foreign Concept Entertainment is a film and television production company specializing in local stories for a global audience.

Dylan Tarason and Michael Rifkin serve as executive producers. Tarason’s credits include “Hell or High Water” and the upcoming Hulu and PCCW Media Hong Kong thriller series “The Season.” Rifkin previously served as co-head of Sony Pictures International Prods. Bangkok-based Living Films, whose credits include FX’s “Alien: Earth,” will handle on-location production services in Thailand.

“Joshua Kurlantzick’s book brilliantly lays out the intense geopolitics of Cold War Southeast Asia, then layers in one extraordinary protagonist and shows how the clash between U.S. ideals and reality played out directly in Jim Thompson’s life,” Belyea said.

The film is being developed in association with the Jim Thompson Thai Silk Company, which Thompson founded in 1951 to revive traditional Thai silk production. The brand — which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary and was featured in Season 3 of “The White Lotus” — takes in textiles, fashion, home furnishings, hospitality, retail and art. Decades on from Thompson’s disappearance, his former Bangkok residence remains one of the country’s most-visited tourist sites.

“The Jim Thompson story is an incredible combination of passion, intrigue, patriotism and unsolved true crime. His disappearance is an enduring mystery that fascinates countless amateur sleuths to this day and begs to be brought to the big screen with A-list talent,” Rifkin said.

“The enduring legacy and mystery of Jim Thompson is a story that has fascinated visitors to Thailand for decades. As a thriller and unsolved mystery, it has great potential for global reach,” Tarason added.