Jon Ronson’s non-fiction book The Psychopath Test might not seem like the sort of tome you'd instantly picture making the transition to film. Universal clearly disagrees, setting up an adaptation deal that has Scarlett Johansson attached to star and Jay Roach to direct.
Kristin Gore, a veteran of Futurama and Saturday Night Live, is on board to write the script, which will turn the book’s subject matter – how the medical community attempts to diagnose and classify psychopaths and the industry that has built up around them – into a psychological thriller.
There are scant details yet on what the final movie, assuming it makes it through the thorny forest of development, will actually be about, but Ronson’s work has proved fruitful in the past, with The Men Who Stare At Goats already turned into a film.
Johansson enjoyed a big hit with Lucy last year and earned plenty of plaudits for Under The Skin. She’s back in Black Widow mode for this April’s Avengers: Age Of Ultron and has also worked on Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book and the Coen brothers’ latest, Hail, Caesar!, both of which are due out next year alongside Captain America: Civil War. As for Roach, he has Dalton Trumbo biopic Trumbo set for release this year and is developing several projects.