Lionsgate/CBS Films’ American Assassin will open in theaters September 15. The film, directed by Michael Cuesta, is based on the bestselling Vince Flynn novel series, with Dylan O’Brien starring as title character Mitch Rapp, a CIA black ops recruit who carries out covert counter-terrorist operations. Michael Keaton stars as Stan Hurley, Rapp’s instructor.

The pair are enlisted by CIA Deputy Director Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan) to investigate a wave of apparently random attacks on military and civilian targets. Together the three discover a pattern in the violence leading them to a joint mission with a lethal Turkish agent (Shiva Negar) to stop a mysterious operative (Taylor Kitsch) intent on starting a world war in the Middle East.

Deadline originally broke the news about the project and O’Brien’s attachment.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Nick Wechsler are producing from a script by Stephen Schiff.

American Assassin will bump up against Open Road’s Blake Lively-Jason Clarke drama thriller All I See Is You and Sony’s Ice Age action thriller The Solutrean from Albert Hughes.