Apparently, all the good looking guys want to be (or toy with) serial killers this year.  According to The Hollywood Reporter,  George Clooney has gone and attached himself to The Monster of Florence, the long simmering adaptation of Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi’s book.

CHUD readers always seem to be up on the historical splatter, but if you’re not, here’s the quick-and-dirty version. From the 1960s to the 1980s, there was a string of murders in Florence, Italy.  They were believed to have all been committed by the same assailant — dubbed Il Mostro, or “The Monster — but there may have been several killers responsible.   Most of the murders were of young couples, almost always in cars or in parks, and  the women almost always horribly mutilated. Three men were arrested and convicted in relation to the case, but Il Mostro’s identity was never truly resolved.

Preston and Spezi did some investigative digging (which put them under suspicion) and concluded Antonio Vinci was a likely suspect. Naturally, Vinci denied this.

The Monster of Florence was a bestseller when it hit shelves in 2008, and the rights were quickly snapped up by Tom Cruise. (Cruise was clearly toying with the dark side — he also optioned  Carter Beats the Devil and The Devil in the White City. The latter now boasts DiCaprio in the lead.)

But Cruise let Monster go into turnaround, and Clooney has snapped it up. He intends to produce and star (presumably as journalist Preston and not as Il Mostro or Vinci, but it’s not clear) and Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander will be writing the screenplay.   No director is attached.   Whoever is chosen (Clooney himself?) will undoubtedly be as classy as the team already assembled.  Just go ahead and put this on the “Best Of 2012” list already.