Oscar-nominated actress Rosamund Pike has found her next project, and it’s a big one. Variety reports that the Gone Girl star is in talks to take on the female lead opposite Christian Bale in The Deep Blue Good-by. The 20th Century Fox film is an adaptation of one of the 21 novels in the Travis McGee series by author John D. MacDonald, and an adaptation has been in the works for a while now.

Bale’s 3:10 to Yuma director James Mangold is set to helm The Deep Blue Good-by, which follows McGee, a self-described beach bum and “salvage consultant” who comes across Lois, a woman who’s been torn apart by her manipulative ex-boyfriend. He sets out to give the woman a new life as he looks for the ruthless man who’s left a string of battered women in his wake, but his quest soon becomes more violent that he thought imaginable.

Variety’s report doesn’t specify who Pike is playing, but if she’s the female lead it’s like she’ll fill the role of Lois. Shutter Island author/screenwriter Dennis Lehane penned the initial script, with Scott Frank (The Lookout, Minority Report) writing the most recent draft. Production is scheduled to begin this year, after which Pike will shoot the survival romance The Mountain Between Us with Charlie Hunnam.

Read a synopsis for the book below.

Travis McGee is a self-described beach bum who won his houseboat in a card game. He’s also a knight-errant who’s wary of credit cards, retirement benefits, political parties, mortgages, and television. He only works when his cash runs out, and his rule is simple: He’ll help you find whatever was taken from you, as long as he can keep half.

 

McGee isn’t particularly strapped for cash, but how can anyone say no to Cathy, a sweet backwoods girl who’s been tortured repeatedly by her manipulative ex-boyfriend Junior Allen? What Travis isn’t anticipating is just how many women Junior has torn apart and left in his wake. Enter Junior’s latest victim, Lois Atkinson.

Frail and broken, Lois can barely get out of bed when Travis finds her, let alone keep herself alive. But Travis turns into Mother McGee, giving Lois new life as he looks for the ruthless man who steals women’s spirits and livelihoods. But he can’t guess how violent his quest is soon to become. He’ll learn the hard way that there must be casualties in this game of cat and mouse. [BN.com]