George Clooney is currently in competition with James Franco for the prize of hardest working actor in Hollywood.

His role in Alexander Payne’s next featureAlexander Payne(he was one of the director’s original choices for Sideways) is now complete and the film is in post-production, he’s prepping his forth directorial effort The Ides of March (formally Farragut North) and he was recently announced as the lead in Alfonso Cuaron’s long-in-development sci-fi thriller Gravity. There’s also whispers of him re-teaming with old buddy Steven Soderbergh for a big screen version of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Now Deadline are reporting that Fox 2000 are turning crime book The Monster of Florence into a star vehicle for the actor, which he’ll also produce under his Smokehouse banner with partner Grant Heslov and one of the film’s scriptwriters, Christopher McQuarrie.

Clooney will play Douglas Preston, a thriller writer who actually embarked on a mission to solve a 30-year old serial murder case with Italian crime reporter Mario Spezi, the results of which were covered in the non-fiction bestseller which shares the same name as the film.

There are definite shades of Zodiac here and since the killings took place in Florence, Italy, Clooney will be able to relax and put his feet up at his home on Lake Garda during the shoot.