LOS ANGELES, CA--(MARKET WIRE)--Jan 30, 2007 -- Acclaimed director Marc Rocco ("MURDER IN THE FIRST," "WHERE THE DAY TAKES YOU," "DREAM A LITTLE DREAM") is set to helm "THE KILLER INSIDE ME" for Cyclone Productions. Rocco will direct from producer Robert Weinbach's award-winning screenplay based on Jim Thompson's highly lauded thriller.

Thompson is widely regarded as one of the most visceral and probing authors of American noir fiction whose books have inspired other notable adaptations including "THE GETAWAY," "THE GRIFTERS" and "AFTER DARK, MY SWEET."

Considered to be Thompson's masterpiece, Stanley Kubrick has described "THE KILLER INSIDE ME" as "the most chilling and believable, first-person story of a criminally warped mind I have ever encountered."

"I'm thrilled to have Marc Rocco aboard to execute this psychologically complex material. Marc is the consummate actor's director as well as an extraordinary filmmaker of vision, sensitivity and compassion with a bravura command of film language," states Weinbach.

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Rocco ("Murder in the First") said financing is being finalized for a fall start, subject to casting. "I loved the idea of filming a beautiful small town and adding an antihero who is right out of the films of the 1970s," Rocco said. "We will put him into a post-9/11 world,.One interesting layer to the script is how much technology has changed the definition of a small town."

Thompson books have been adapted into films including "The Grifters," "The Getaway" and "After Dark, My Sweet".

Rocco is also mobilizing to direct "The Winter Hill Gang," a drama he wrote with David Flowers about the largest gang war in American history, in Boston in 1961. Project was set up several years ago at Paramount, with Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner producing with Marc Frydmann. Rocco is also teamed with Birtu Entertainment's William MacDonald ("Rome") and Vinne Viola on a TV series pilot adaptation of his film "Where the Day Takes You," which Rocco co-wrote and directed.

Date in print: Tue., Jan. 30, 2007, Los Angeles