Malta is to double as Libya in a Paramount Pictures political drama about the 2012 attack on an American compound in Libya that killed US ambassador Christopher Stevens.

Called 13 Hours, the film will start shooting in April in Malta and Morocco, sources confirmed. Directed by Michael Bay, of the Transformers franchise, the film will feature David Denman and John Krasinski, from the NBC sitcom The Office.

The film is an adaptation of Mitchell Zuckoff’s book about the events in Benghazi on the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

Paramount acquired the rights to the book 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened In Benghazi before it was published last year.

The story focuses on the Special Forces team that attempted to rescue the late ambassador.

He was killed with three other Americans during a four-hour assault, as gunmen fought security forces and set fire to Benghazi’s US Consulate. The attack took place at the same time that a protest was taking place outside the compound against an amateur, internet-based film called Innocence of Muslims that ridiculed the Prophet Muhammad.

The film is based on a book about the events in Benghazi on the 11thanniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US

However, there were conflicting views on whether the attack was planned.

Ambassador Stevens crossed paths with US Ambassador to Malta Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley many times, as both served in various posts in the Middle East. His successor, Deborah Jones, is temporarily based in Malta, since the US evacuated the Tripoli embassy last July.

About 150 Americans were evacuated from the US embassy as violence in the vicinity intensified.

News about the Paramount production comes at a time when Libyan security concerns have escalated and the country is sinking further into chaos.

Ever since Col Muammar Gaddafi was ousted four years ago, the various factions have turned on each other, fighting for recognition and resources.

Now grouped into two rival administrations, with an internationally recognised government in Tobruk and a self-declared leadership in Tripoli, the country is split in half.

Malta has often, for the purposes of film, imitated locations rife with conflict, including Iraq in The Devil’s Double and Jerusalem in Brad Pitt’s World War Z.