The recent departure of business partner Paula Wagner hasn’t slowed Tom Cruise and United Artists down in the least, as it was reported earlier today Cruise and UA have acquired the films rights to the novel The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi.

The Monster of Florence is about the reconstruction of eight gruesome double-murders that are believed to have been committed single-handedly between 1968 and 1985 in, of course, Florence, Italy.

Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects), scribe of Cruise’s latest embattled effort Valkyrie will be handling the first draft of the script.

Author Douglas Preston, some of you may or may not remember, co-wrote the novel The Relic, the source material of which the movie of the same name was based on. Although that film featured a pretty kick-ass creature courtesy Stan Winston, here’s to hoping this adaptation of Preston’s material turns out a little better.