EXCLUSIVE: Insensibles director [pictured] boards crime-thriller written by Jane Goldman.

Juan Carlos Medina is to direct Number 9’s crime-thriller Dan Leno and The Limehouse Golem, which Kickass and X-Men: First Class writer Jane Goldman has adapted from Peter Ackroyd’s novel of the same name.

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The feature will be Medina’s second after his well-received 2012 debut Insensibles (Painless), which premiered at Toronto and played in Sitges and London among other festivals.

Set amongst the music halls and pantomimes of Victorian London, Goldman’s previously announced script follows a Jack the Ripper-style serial killer nicknamed the Limehouse Golem.

Number 9, producers of Great Expectations and Byzantium, is meeting financiers in Cannes to discuss the project, which is casting at the moment. Shoot is due for first quarter of 2014.

“Juan Carlos is a really exciting director,” The Crying Game and Michael Collins producer Woolley told Screen. “He has been working with Jane on the script and it has gone really well. I loved Painless, which I saw in Toronto last year, so we’re very excited to be working with him.”

Development backing comes from Film4 and the BFI.