Hearing that after developing the project for 8 months, Phillip Noyce (“Salt”, “Patriot Games”) has given up the prospect of helming the big budget action thriller “Hunter Killer” for Relativity.

The project is based on Don Keith and George Wallace’s novel “Firing Point,” about an American sub commander and a Navy SEAL team that must rescue the Russian president and defeat a renegade admiral who’s attempting a coup.

Sources tell us Noyce felt the material was ”too close to other films he had already made” (Likely referring to the Jack Ryan films and the recent “Salt”), and decided instead to concentrate on the love story ”Timeless”, also from Relativity, and the thriller “Above Suspicion” from Bold Films.

“Timeless” is being produced by ”Salt”s Sunil Perkash. ”Above Suspicion” is written by Academy Award winner Chris Gerolmo.

No word on a replacement director on “Hunter Killer”.