McQuarrie Adapting Monster of Florence for Cruise

Tom Cruise continues to round up the usual suspects from The Usual Suspects. First turning to director Bryan Singer for Valkyrie, and now tapping Oscar winner Christopher McQuarrie to adapt bestselling non-fiction thriller The Monster of Florence and 1960’s British TV series The Champions, about a team of government agents who gain superhuman powers after coming in contact with a mysterious civilization [insert Scientology crack here].

McQuarrie’s concrete involvement suggests a new push to accelerate UA’s slate. The studio has a $500 million production fund that requires three UA movies to be released by mid-2010. But the only project greenlit by UA since Cruise and business partner Paula Wagner took control of the MGM division two years ago is Cruise’s World War Two drama “Valkyrie,” due in theaters next month. McQuarrie co-wrote that film. (Reuters)

Monster of Florence looks most interesting to me. Amazon.com says it would fit neatly on the shelf between Midnight in the Garden of Evil and In Cold Blood.

United in their obsession with a grisly Italian serial murder case almost three decades old, thriller writer Preston (coauthor, Brimstone) and Italian crime reporter Spezi seek to uncover the identity of the killer in this chilling true crime saga. From 1974 to 1985, seven pairs of lovers parked in their cars in secluded areas outside of Florence were gruesomely murdered. When Preston and his family moved into a farmhouse near the murder sites, he and Spezi began to snoop around, although witnesses had died and evidence was missing… This suspenseful procedural reveals much about the dogged writing team as well as the motives of the killers. Better than some overheated noir mysteries, this bit of real-life Florence bloodletting makes you sweat and think, and presses relentlessly on the nerves. (Publishers Weekly)