Tom Cruise has bought the rights to "The Monster of Florence", the novel by the master thriller writer Douglas Preston and by Mario Spezi the Florence journalist. The book has been at the top of the best sellers in the United States (eight weeks in the New York times best sellers list), after being voted the best thriller of the year by Amazon. Douglas Preston, whose bestsellers have already inspired several successful Hollywood films, has described this film as the biggest film contract of his life.

Tom Cruise, owner of United Artists, is going to invest 50 million dollars into making the film, and will be the producer, and possibly also an actor in the film, in a partnership also involving Metro Goldwyn Mayer and Warner. The screenplay will be written by Christopher McQuarry, who also wrote the screenplay for "The Usual Suspects". Apparently the american actor fell in love with the idea, and was completely entranced by the book, which tells the story of the most famous italian serial killer, who was responsible for eight double murders committed between 1968 and 1985, killing young couples in remote spots in the countryside around Florence.

The novel in reality is the counter investigation by the journalist Mario Spezi, who has looked into the affair for the last 40 years and believes that the real monster of Florence is probably a person who has remained on the edges of the enquiry. In fact due to his ideas Spezi spent 23 days in prison accused of sidetracking police enquiries, and Preston was expelled from Italy accused of the same thing.

The extraordinary legal vicissitudes of the florentine journalist, which raised an enormous controversy about the freedom of the press in Italy, is intertwined with this disturbing and morbid story of murder, which happened in one of the most-loved places in the world: Florence the splendid hills around it. And in fact the Chianti area near Florence will be at the centre of the film, which will be shot next year in this landscape of centuries-old vineyards, olive groves and medieval villages. Allowing yourself the luxury of a stay in a prestigious property is the best way of discovering the real attraction of the places in this area which are rich in beauty, history and culture

In fact it was this countryside that was behind the meeting of Spezi and Preston, who came to Italy in the year 2000 with his family to fulfil a dream he had had for years. It was then that he discovered that right next to the fifteenth century house he had rented was carried out one of the terrible crimes of the monster.

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