Loudon Owen’s film production shingle Know Rules Media has tapped Kazakhstan director Akan Satayev to direct its upcoming under $5 million English-language picture Hacker.

Satayev lensed Kazakhstan’s best foreign language film entries Strayed and Myn Bala.

Hacker, which tells the story of a young immigrant kid who gets involved with a cyber criminal organization, is based on a story written by Satayev and Timur Zhaxylykov, Satayev’s long-­‐time writing collaborator.

The script was penned by Sanzhar Sultanov, who runs Toronto-based Know Rules Media. The company is to coproduce Hacker with Satayev’s SataiFilm.

Brillstein Entertainment Partners will executive produce, helping with packaging the project, now in pre-production.

Production on Hacker is set to start in late fall 2013, with filming locations in New York, Toronto, Dubai and Bangkok.