It was reported a couple of months ago that West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin was looking to dip his toes back into political screenwriting, and had been showing interest in The Politician, an account of the presidential campaign and sex scandal surrounding US candidate John Edwards. Well, things have moved on, because Sorkin has both bought the rights and is making it his directorial debut.

Andrew Young, who was one of Edwards’ aides for years after first volunteering for him in 1998, found his position compromised when Edwards started demanding that he help cover up his affair and the child he had had with his mistress. After he resigned, Young penned The Politician: An Insider's Account of John Edwards's Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down, which hit shelves across the pond earlier this year.

"This is a first-hand account of an extraordinary story filled with motivations, decisions and consequences that would have lit Shakespeare up," Sorkin tells The Hollywood Reporter. "There's much more to Andrew's book than what has been reported, and I'm grateful that he's trusting me with it."

Sorkin has been gathering plenty of praise for his script for The Social Network and his work on Moneyball, and given his experience with political tales, his writing the thing is a perfect match. But the real test will come as a director: while he’s overseeing several TV shows, he’s never been behind the megaphone for a feature. Still, he’s worked with enough talented directorial types that we’re confident he’s picked up a trick or two by now.