The last time I saw Martin Sheen playing an upper-ranking officer in a covert crime fighting organization his Captain Queenan character ended up getting chucked off a building at the end of The Departed. The elder Sheen isn’t letting that character’s demise stop him from heading back to the spy game. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sheen has accepted a role in the upcoming film The Double.

He’ll play a CIA director in the spy thriller which, without having the script in front of me, probably involves a *gasp* double agent! My two top choices for the turncoat are Richard Gere and Topher Grace who are also starring in the flick. Gere plays a retired CIA agent and Grace is a fresh-faced FBI newbie. Michael Brandt will direct in the mystery of a murdered senator.

Sheen’s last two major picture roles were in relative disappointments Love Happens and Imagine That. Now he gets a chance to act in something everyone can get on board with, a double agent spy thriller. Who doesn’t love those?

The Double begins filming next week in that covert hotbed, Detroit, Michigan.