Universal Pictures and Working Title are now in talks with Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) to direct The Snowman, but the biggest news is that the two are also in talks with Michael Fassbender to star in the lead role, Harry Hole, a detective who investigates the disappearance of a young boy’s mother when the pink scarf that he gave her suddenly appears on a snowman. His investigation leads him to believe that Norway may have their first serial killer.

Hole has been described as brilliant and driven detective with unorthodox methods, a classic loose cannon in the police force. He is also a heavy smoker and an alcoholic. The film will be an adaptation of Jo Nesbø‘s novel of the same name, which is actually the seventh book in the Harry Hole novel series.

According to THR, the film has been in development for quite some time, and was once a Martin Scorsese directorial project in 2011. Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title will produce.

Here is a short synopsis of The Snowman via Amazon:

One night, after the first snowfall of the year, a boy named Jonas wakes up and discovers that his mother has disappeared. Only one trace of her remains: a pink scarf, his Christmas gift to her, now worn by the snowman that inexplicably appeared in their yard earlier that day. Inspector Harry Hole suspects a link between the missing woman and a suspicious letter he’s received. The case deepens when a pattern emerges: over the past decade, eleven women have vanished””all on the day of the first snow. But this is a killer who makes his own rules . . . and he’ll break his pattern just to keep the game interesting, as he draws Harry ever closer into his twisted web. With brilliantly realized characters and hair-raising suspense, international bestselling author Jo Nesbø presents his most chilling case yet””one that will test Harry Hole to the very limits of his sanity.

Fassbender can next be seen in Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs, the biopic written by Aaron Sorkin. He plays the lead role in Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth, starring alongside Marion Cotillard. Next May, he can be seen reprising his role as Magneto in X-Men: Apocalypse, and will reunite with Kurzel and Cotillard in the big screen adaptation of the popular video game Assassin’s Creed.

[Source: THR]