Downton Abbey star Hugh Bonneville is to play the lead role in a film version of Peter James' bestselling crime novel Dead Simple, one of his Roy Grace series of books.
Screen Daily, which broke the story, says that James, a former film financier, has sold over 10m books worldwide and has been involved in developing the film of Dead Simple for the screen.
The plot finds Brighton-based detective Grace trying to find a man who has been buried alive in a stag night prank, while also dealing with the mysterious disappearance of his own wife.
Bonneville said of signing up for the film: "I instinctively feel that my strengths as an actor chime with the principal qualities found in Roy Grace and I'm tremendously excited at the prospect of bringing him off the page and onto the screen."
