George Clooney sure loves Italy. Well known for having a home at Lake Como, he’s now planning to make a film, which like The American, should give him an excuse to spend more time soaking up the Italian air. THR reports that he’s attached to The Monster Of Florence, based on Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi’s book, which is being adaped for the screen by Chris McQuarrie, along with his Valkyrie co-writer, Nathan Alexander.
You may vaguely remember that back in 2008, Tom Cruise had lined this one up as a project for him to potentially star in, but when his United Artists company got caught up in the MGM restructuring, the project went into turnatround and has now been picked up by Clooney, who will produce through his Smoke House production company.
The Monster Of Florence is an investigation into a real-life serial killer who murdered more than a 14 people from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s. While Pietro Pacciani was found guilty of seven of the killings, those conviction were later overturned due to lack of evidence, and he died before a trial to clarify his involvment could begin. While many assume him to be Il Mostro, Preston and Spezi’s book casts doubt on that and posits an alternate possibility.
Deadline says that Clooney is attached to play Douglas Preston, who moved to Florence to investigate the murders, alongside Italian crime reporter Spezi. However what started out are merely an attempt to uncover new evidence in a cold case took an unexpected turn when the duo were investigated by the police themselves, interrogating Preston and throwing Spezi in jail. However eventually the writers believed they’d solved the crime, even if the man they point the finger at denies it.
There’s no news yet on when the movie might shoot, and with Clooney a busy man, we may have to wait a while.