George Clooney, never one to play it safe in terms of his acting career, has entered an agreement to star in Fox 2000’s adaptation of the Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi best seller, The Monster of Florence. The project, which was first optioned by Tom Cruise in the fall of 2008 with the intention that he would produce and possibly star, has been stalled due to MGM’s finance and restructuring problems.
Christopher McQuarrie, who wrote the film Valkyrie starring Cruise, is still attached to write the adaptation with Nathan Alexander.
The Monster of Florence is an investigation into the murderer (or murderers) known as Il Mostro, who killed more than a dozen people from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s without being caught. In the course of their digging, Preston, who had moved with his family to a villa in Florence, and Spezi, an Italian crime journalist, were themselves then investigated by the police.
I’m always down for a great crime procedural so Florence looks like my cup of tea. Hopefully, it can be every bit as good as David Fincher’s adaptation of Robert Graysmith’s Zodiac novel.
Before production can commence, Clooney will first direct his third feature film, The Ides of March, and will follow that with shooting his role for Alfonso Cuarón’s (Children of Men) sci-fi thriller Gravity opposite Sandra Bullock.