London-based production company Material Entertainment is in advanced talks with Justin Chadwick to direct thriller The Property.

Chadwick's The Other Boleyn Girl opens in the UK today.

The Property is a London-set thriller about a young professional couple who use dubious methods to land their dream home, only to be tormented by the previous owner. Justin Trefgarne will work on the rewrite of Clive Dawson's original screenplay.

Material will produce with Claire Moorsom's Seymour Films. Material's Robert Jones will produce with Moorsom while Margaret Matheson is executive producing. The project has already had backing from the UK Film Council's Development Fund.

Jones said 'We've been searching for a London-based thriller for some time. The Property has intriguing morally ambiguous characters and is a gripping story about the lengths to which supposedly decent people will go to get what they want, and how their decency disintegrates when the consequences are far worse than they could ever imagine.'

Material was set up in 2005 as a joint venture between New Line and the UK distributor Entertainment. There has been no word how the New Line absorption into Warner Bros will impact Material, but the outfit is clearly moving ahead with new projects. Last week, the company announced that it had acquired the screen rights to John Drake's Flint & Silver as well as the book's two follow-ups, pre-quels to Treasure Island.

Material had its first hit in 2007 with Run, Fat Boy, Run.

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