Steven Spielberg is to call his upcoming movie about the 1972 Olympic massacre and its aftermath "Munich", according to an announcement by Dreamwork's and Universal.

The movie, whose filming started earlier this month in Malta, stars Eric Bana as an agent of Israel's Mossad secret service who leads a secret Israeli squad assigned to assassinate the Palestinians suspected of planning the killings.

"Munich" also co-stars Geoffrey Rush, Daniel Craig and Mathieu Kassovitz and is due out Dec 23.

In 1972, 11 members of the Israeli Olympics team in Munich were killed by Palestinian terrorists.