Oscar winner Cillian Murphy is set to star in the film adaptation of the Mark A Bradley book Blood Runs Coal: The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America.
This will be the Irish actor's next project for Universal Pictures, who produced Oppenheimer, the film that led to Murphy’s recent Oscar success.
This latest tale is an epic story of a corrupt union leader who murders a rival and is taken down by the lawyer son of the slain coal miner.
It will be scripted as a starring and producing vehicle for Murphy.
Jez Butterworth (Spectre, Ford v Ferrari) will write the script with John-Henry Butterworth (Get On Up, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny).
The pair previously worked together on Edge of Tomorrow.
Blood Runs Coal takes place in the late 1960s in the coal mines of Pennsylvania and chronicles one of the most infamous crimes in the history of trade union activity in the USA.
Murphy will play Chip Yablonski, the son who makes it his business to bring the man who murdered his father to justice.
NBCUniversal Chair and Chief of Content Donna Langley moved quickly to secure the movie rights to the book before other studios had the chance to bid.
