John Carew to star in multi-million dollar secret agent film

If you'd been wondering what John Carew was getting up to after retiring from football, wonder no more.

The former Aston Villa and Valencia striker hung up his boots in 2012, and was seen in some high-stakes poker games after bringing his playing career to a close. And it seems the Norwegian fancies himself as a James Bond type, after securing a starring role in a film which he has described as part-Bond, part-Jason Bourne. Black Frost is due to be released in 2018, according to Norwegian outlet nrk.no, and sees Carew star as secret agent Felix Frost. The upcoming film - which Carew also helped write - is the first part of a trilogy. NRK cites reports from Aftenposten that each instalment has a budget of $24m. Carew scored more than 150 goals in a 15-year professional football career, winning 91 international caps for Norway. He would not be the first former Premier League footballer to branch out into film, with Vinnie Jones starring in a number of Hollywood films and former Chelsea defender Frank Leboeuf playing a doctor in Oscar-nominated The Theory of Everything. Black Frost will be the 36-year-old's highest-profile film to date, though he has also featured in Norwegian film Høvdinger and Canadian production Dead of Winter.