The Secret Service action thriller Motorcade will be written and directed by Joe Carnahan, best known on the small screen for writing, directing and producing State of Affairs and The Blacklist.

The premise involves a Secret Service agent who fails to block a terrorist attack on the President of the United States’ motorcade in Los Angeles. Various high-profile filmmakers have shown interest in the project, which has actually been around for over 10 years, starting out as a pitch by Hans Bauer and Craig Mitchell, picked up by DreamWorks in 2004.

It’s really a mystery why the picture—once eyed by Hollywood stars Tom Cruise and Ryan Reynolds—hasn’t yet been made, especially considering that films with similar storylines (Olympus Has Fallen and the Channing Tatum flick White House Down) have found their way to the big screen in the meantime. After years of development limbo, the new head of DreamWorks, Michael Wright, surprised the project wasn’t in production, has finally set the wheels in motion.

Prominent scribe Billy Ray, whose credits include The Hunger Games and Captain Phillips, wrote the most recent draft of the screenplay. However, Carnahan himself is said to be rewriting the film.

Although Carnahan wrote and directed last year’s offbeat action comedy Stretch, starring Patrick Wilson, his last major feature film release was the 2011 Liam Neeson adventure drama The Grey. Over the years, the filmmaker has not made a huge number of movies, but his projects tend to be memorable, e.g. 2006’s Smokin’ Aces.