Michael Sheen is to make his feature directing debut on - and star in - the true crime thriller, based on the actor’s own script

Los Angeles-based independent QC Entertainment is to finance and produce true crime thriller Green River Killer, with Michael Sheen (pictures) starring and making his feature directing debut.

The film will be based on Sheen’s own screenplay, adapted from Jeff Jensen’s graphic novel Green River Killer: A True Detective Story, about American serial killer Gary Ridgway (to be played by Sheen) and Tom Jensen, the man who hunted Ridgwayfor two decades. The script was included on last year’s Black List of highly regarded but unproduced screenplays.

Mike Richardson and Keith Goldberg of Dark Horse Entertainment, publisher of the graphic novel, will produce with Sheen and QC’s Sean McKittrick and Ray Mansfield. QC’s Edward H Hamm Jr and Shaun Redick will serve as executive producers.

ICM Partners and QC will co-represent the film for domestic sales. An international sales company has yet to be named.

QC is the recently formed partnership between McKittrick and Hamm’s Darko Entertainment and Movie Package Company’s Mansfield and Redick.

“Michael has written an elegant script which brings his sophisticated vision to subverting the typical serial killer movie,” said McKittrick and Mansfield. “Jensen and Ridgway are terrific roles for both an actor of Michael’s caliber and the actor cast opposite him. As producers who have long championed actors making the move to directing, we couldn’t be more excited to be a part of it.”

Sheen said: “This is a dark story but one that ultimately finds hope and meaning in that darkness. The story of Tom and Gary, and how they are bound together in time, pulled me in from the beginning and wouldn’t let go. I hope that by now bringing it to life on screen it can make audiences feel the same way.”