George Clooney to act in 'The Monster of Florence'

George Clooney will play the lead role of Douglas Preston, in the movie,The Monster of Florence, a true story of a serial killer who committed 16 murders in Florence, Italy from 1968 to 1985, which later became a nonfiction book by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi.

Earlier, Tom Cruise was considered for the role but nothing came of it. According to reports, George Clooney has also tentatively agreed to be a part of the film. The script is not yet ready and Clooney has a lot of projects at hand this year. He is directing the film, The Ides Of March and acting with Sandra Bullock in the science thriller Gravity.

The story like that of Jack the Ripper has evoked a keen interest, specially with a controversy surrounding the arrest of the accused Pietro Pacciani. Christopher McQuarrie is writing the script and story line is centred around disproving his conviction and proving that the real killer was someone else.

The script may take a documentary tone or stick the dramatic thriller route.

IMDB reports that the film will release in 2011 but the date seems a little preemptive since the script is not ready yet, and the lead actor unable to commit dates.