Ron Howard is making another thriller based on a best-selling novel

By Sam Barsanti | April 24, 2014 | 6:15pm

Aux Features Film

Hollywood can only make so many movies about well-educated people solving crazy mysteries that are adapted from successful novels, but it seems like Da Vinci Code director Ron Howard is going to save everyone else the trouble and just make all of them himself. As reported by Deadline, Howard’s next project—which he’ll take on with longtime producing partner Brian Grazer—will be directing an adaptation of The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair, a French novel written by Joel Dicker. Harry Quebert tells the story of a “young superstar novelist” who becomes involved in a murder investigation when the dead body of a teenage girl is found in the backyard of his mentor, another famous writer.

Though the book itself hasn’t even been published in the U.S. yet, Harry Quebert has already sold over 2 million copies across Europe, won a handful of awards, and even outpaced Dan Brown’s Inferno—the adaptation of which Howard is also directing—in Spain and Italy. There’s no word yet on casting for Harry Quebert, but it’s a safe bet that Tom Hanks is anxiously waiting by his phone.