Oscar winners Joel and Ethan Coen have signed on to adapt Ross Macdonald’s 1966 crime novel “Black Money” for Warner Bros. with an eye towards potentially directing the film, an individual familiar with the project has told TheWrap.
Joel Silver will produce and co-finance “Black Money” with Warner Bros. after they recently worked together on the Ryan Gosling-Russell Crowe movie “The Nice Guys.”
Warner Bros. optioned “Black Money,” which follows private eye Lew Archer as he investigates a woman’s disappearance and uncovers a conspiracy involving an old suicide and a ton of gambling debts.
WB executive Greg Silverman was the driving force behind bringing in the Coen brothers. The filmmakers are the latest auteurs to work with the studio after Paul Thomas Anderson and Alfonso Cuaron made “Inherent Vice” and “Gravity” there.
The Coens are in postproduction on Universal’s upcoming “Hail Caesar!” which stars George Clooney and Josh Brolin. The siblings are represented by UTA.