Warner Bros. and Joel Silver have picked up the rights to Ross Macdonald's series of Lew Archer mystery novels.  The studio hopes to turn the series into a franchise beginning with an adaptation of the eighth Lew Archer book, 1959's The Galton Case.  Per Deadline, "Archer is a private eye who cracked dangerous cases in Southern California in the 1950s and 60s. In The Galton Case, Archer is hired to track down the lost heir to the Galton fortune. His path leads him through a trail of murder, deception and a tangle of secrets."  The character was previously by Paul Newman in 1966's Harper and 1975's The Drowning Pool.

Warner Bros. is in the process of hiring a writer and hopes to turn Macdonalds books into "an elevated noir franchise."  Regular readers of the site know I love me some good noir so hopefully this franchise works out.  Of course, what actor can fill the shoes of Paul Newman?  Hit the jump for the synopsis for The Galton Case.

Here's the synopsis for Ross Macdonald's The Galton Case:

Almost twenty years have passed since Anthony Galton disappeared, along with a suspiciously streetwise bride and several thousand dollars of his family's fortune. Now Anthony's mother wants him back and has hired Lew Archer to find him. What turns up is a headless skeleton, a boy who claims to be Galton's son, and a con game whose stakes are so high that someone is still willing to kill for them. Devious and poetic, The Galton Case displays MacDonald at the pinnacle of his form. [Amazon]

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