Russell Crowe has been cast in Sleeping Dogs, a film adaptation of E.O. Chirovici’s novel The Book of Mirrors, Variety reports.
Crowe, known for his performances in The Insider, Gladiator, and A Beautiful Mind, will play a lead role in the film, which is being directed by Adam Cooper.
Chirovici’s thriller, published by Atria in 2017, follows a literary agent who hires a reporter to investigate a manuscript that he believes might hold the key to an unsolved murder committed 25 years earlier. A critic for Kirkus called the book “a smart, sophisticated murder puzzle sure to please the more literary-minded aficionados of the form.”
In the film, Crowe will play a police detective who originally investigated the murder and is now afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease.
Cooper is one of the film’s producers and co-wrote the screenplay alongside Bill Collage; the two previously collaborated on the movies Allegiant and Assassin’s Creed.
“Our memory of the past is what gives us context for who we are,” Cooper said. “A character who is bereft in this capacity comes with a very complex kind of humanity—and there’s no one better at embodying complex characters than Russell Crowe.”
The movie begins filming next year.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.