Casey Affleck and screenwriter Chuck Maclean just pitched Boston Strangler, a thriller about the serial killer charged with the murder of fourteen women in the early 1960s, to Warner Bros.  Know how you just thought to yourself, "Yeah, I'd watch that."  Warner Bros. thought the same thing and bought the pitch.  According to Deadline, the script by Maclean will view the case through the perspective of "an ambitious detective who is willing to risk career and life in a race to bring down the most notorious sexual predator of the day, while battling a political cover-up by corrupt politicians and lawyers trying to save their careers."  In addition to producing, Affleck is looking to star the detective in the "Strangler Squad" who investigated the crimes.  Kevin McCormick (Gangster Squad) will produce through his Langley Park banner.

Hit the jump for more on the murder (or possibly murderers?) known as the Boston Strangler.

Here is the Wikipedia account:

boston strangler

The Boston Strangler is a name attributed to the murderer (or murderers) of several women in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, in the early 1960s.  Though the crimes were attributed to Albert DeSalvo after his confession to the murders was revealed in court during a separate case, parties investigating the stranglings have since suggested the murders (sometimes known as the silk stocking murders) were not committed by one person.

The initial sobriquet for the perpetrator or perpetrators of the crimes was, "The Mad Strangler of Boston."  The July 8, 1962, edition of the Sunday Herald, in an article entitled "Mad Strangler Kills Four Women in Boston," declared in its opening paragraph, "A mad strangler is loose in Boston."  The killer (or killers) also was known initially as "The Phantom Fiend" or "The Phantom Strangler" due to the uncanny ability of the perpetrator (or perpetrators) to get women to allow him into their apartments.  By the time DeSalvo's confession was aired in open court, the name "The Boston Strangler" had become part of crime lore.

The natural comparison---a period piece where there is ambiguity about the identity of the serial killer---is Zodiac.  But from another angle---Affleck as a Boston detective---the Gone Baby Gone similarities are apparent.  Since both are fine films, I'd say Boston Strangler has all the ingredients for a solid thriller.