Writer/director Richard Kelly, the mind behind such features as Donnie Darko, Southland Tales and The Box, has lined up the true-crime thriller, Amicus, for his next film; Nicolas Cage is set to star.  Based on the bizarre case of Lawrence Horn, a former record producer and Motown Records executive who hired a Detroit-based hitman to murder his family in order to inherit their wealth, Amicus follows the 25 year span from the initial crime, through the trial and a resulting lawsuit from the victims’ families.  Oddly enough, hired hitman James Perry used a “how to” manual to commit his crime and the families sued the book’s Colorado-based publisher, Paladin Press.  On the side of the plaintiffs as a third-party expert (or amicus curiae) was Rodney Smolla (Cage), a First Amendment attorney and professor at William & Mary Law School.  Hit the jump for more.