Warner Brothers have bought the film rights to a yet-to-published crime novel by young New Zealand writer Ben Sanders.
Bradley Cooper, Oscar nominated for his role in American Hustle, is set to star in and produce the film based on Sanders' American Blood, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The book, due to be published next year by Macmillan, follows a New York police officer and mob informant, who while living in a witness protect programme in New Mexico starts investigating a local woman's disappearance.
Sanders, 24, published his first book The Fallen as a student four years ago and it became New Zealand's No.1 fiction bestseller for five weeks.
The qualified engineer was signed up by MacMillan Publishing in New York last year after two other New Zealand commercial successes, By Any Means and Only the Dead.
The Hollywood Reporter says American Blood is probably the first in a series of books, which means there's franchise potential for the films.
