Sean Bean Expected to Play DI Benny Griessel in Film Adaptation of Deon Meyer's Thirteen Hours

Earlier this week South African crime novelist Deon Meyer revealed (via Twitter) that Sean Bean (Game of Thrones, "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy) is the likely choice to play Detective Inspector Benny Griessel in the film adaptation of Thirteen Hours (Afrikaans title: 13 Uur), the second book in the series to feature the police officer. Malcolm Kohll is writing the screenplay, with principal photography expected to begin in Cape Town this March.

About the book: At 05:36 the woman is running up Lion's Head. She is young, beautiful, American. And terrified. Because she is being hunted, like an animal.

At 05:37, the call wakes DI Benny Griessel. There's been a murder. A girl, her throat slit, her body lying next to St. Martini, the Lutheran Church in Long Street.

At 07:02, the hung-over, alcoholic former singing sensation Alexa Barnard discovers her philandering music mogul husband's body next to her on the floor — and a pistol just inches from her hand.

By nine o'clock, with two murders to solve and his own longing for the bottle almost unbearable, Griessel realizes his mentorship of a new generation of law enforcers is going to be a little more complicated than he anticipated.

Past noon, the race to save a young tourist from death becomes desperate and chaotic, and just before half past five, they shoot Griessel, right in the heart.

Fairly normal day, your typical thirteen hours of Cape Town homicide investigation.