David Fincher’s (The Social Network, Zodiac, Fight Club) newly formed production company Panic Pictures has optioned its first property, an adaptation of the macabre crime novel Panic Attack. Jason Starr’s 2009 story is a dark thriller about a New York psychiatrist who shoots and kills a home intruder and then has to face a media frenzy and the victim’s accomplice who is seeking revenge.
Screenwriter Ted Griffin (Ocean’s Eleven, Tower Heist) will write the script for the movie adaptation. Novelist Starr’s tenth book The Pack is released next week and four of his previous novels are already in development in Hollywood.
No word yet on whether David Fincher will be directing Panic Attack himself or passing it on to another director. He is currently finishing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (released in cinemas in the UK on December 26th) and may make the next in the trilogy. He is also due to make Cleopatra with Angelina Jolie and has other projects in pre-production.