Tom Cruise's United Artists deal makers have acquired the rights to Douglas Preston's serial killer story The Monster Of Florence at the Venice Film Festival in Italy.

Cruise is attached to produce and possibly star in the thriller, according to author Preston, who was inspired to write the book by a series of real-life grisly homicides that took place between 1968 and 1985 - the same murders that inspired Thomas Harris to write Silence of The Lambs sequel Hannibal.

Jubilant Preston says, "It's the biggest movie deal in my life."

Chris McQuarrie, the man behind Cruise's Valkyrie script, will pen the screenplay. (c) WENN