George Clooney to Star in Film Adaptation of The Monster of Florence

Deadline|New York is reporting that Fox 2000 has acquired the film rights to the true crime book The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston and Italian crime reporter Mario Spezi.

George Clooney is on board to play Preston, who is probably best known to mystery readers as the co-author with Lincoln Child of the Pendergast series of thrillers.

The Monster of Florence describes the efforts of Preston and Spezi, who together set out to solve a series of unsolved murders that took place between 1974 and 1985 outside the Italian city. Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects, The Tourist) and Nathan Alexander (Valkyrie) will write the screenplay.