George Clooney has replaced Tom Cruise to portray novelist Douglas Preston in an upcoming movie about the search for the Monster of Florence serial killer, Cinemablend.com is reporting. While news of Cruise’s casting and screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie being hired to pen the script first surfaced in 2008, the latter still appears to be attached to the film.

Preston is an American thriller writer who worked with Italian crime reporter Mario Spezi to investigate the almost 40-year-old case. The two made headlines after they caught the killer, who murdered seven couples between 1974 and 1985, despite facing resistance from the Italian police.

However, the movie won’t begin filming anytime soon, as McQuarrie is still working on the script with co-writer Nathan Alexander. Clooney is also directing the political comedy ‘The Ides of March’ with star Ryan Gosling, and then will appear in ‘Gravity’ with Sandra Bullock. But once the Monster of Florence movie begins shooting, Clooney will be able to stay close to his Lake Como vacation home.

Written by: Karen Benardello