X-Men screenwriter David Hayter will write and make his directorial debut with The Black Widow, based on a Marvel Comics series, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Lions Gate Entertainment (The Punisher) will distribute the movie, which will be produced by Marvel Studios' Avi Arad, the trade paper reported.

The Black Widow, an early supporting character in the Marvel Comics universe, is also known by her other identity: Natasha Romanova, a Russian spy who made her debut in The Invincible Iron Man, the trade paper reported. She also was part of the superteams assembled in the Champions and Avengers comics series. She ultimately became a love interest of Daredevil.

Hayter is such a fan of the character that he named his daughter Natasha when she was born this month, the trade paper reported.

In Hayter's version, at birth the Black Widow is given to the KGB, which grooms her to become its ultimate operative. When the U.S.S.R. breaks up, the government tries to kill her as the action moves to present-day New York, where she is a freelance operative, the trade paper reported.