Darren Aronofsky Directing Adaptation of True Serial Killer Story ‘The Good Nurse’

Update: We've received word that Aronofsky is not attached to direct ‘The Good Nurse,’ but that his production company, Protozoa Pictures, is producing the project.

Just this morning, Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Noah’ picked up a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song, so you might not want to count his biblical epic out of the Oscar race just yet. In the meantime, if you were curious about what the director plans to do next, we have a potential answer: Aronofsky is attached to direct ‘The Good Nurse,’ based on the true crime novel of the same name about a prolific serial killer who exploited his career as a nurse to murder as many as 300 patients.

Aronofsky is also developing a ‘MaddAddam’ HBO series, based on the Margaret Atwood novel of the same name, and he’s one of the directors who’s been previously linked to the sci-fi project ‘Moonfall.’ It’s not immediately clear if ‘The Good Nurse’ will be Aronofsky’s next project, but he’s definitely attached to the adaptation of the Charles Graeber novel, according to The Tracking Board’s 2014 Hit List.

Aronofsky would direct from a script by Krysty Wilson-Cairns, the screenwriter responsible for the sci-fi script ‘Aether,’ which has also been attracting a fair amount of interest. It also sounds like exactly the sort of dark material that might attract Aronofsky, allowing him to guide us inside the mind of someone truly disturbed. Here’s the official book synopsis:

After his December 2003 arrest, registered nurse Charlie Cullen was quickly dubbed ‘The Angel of Death’ by the media. But Cullen was no mercy killer, nor was he a simple monster. He was a favourite son, husband, beloved father, best friend, and celebrated caregiver. Implicated in the deaths of as many as 300 patients, he was also perhaps the most prolific serial killer in American history. Cullen’s murderous career in the world’s most trusted profession spanned sixteen years and nine hospitals across New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Investigative journalist Charles Graeber’s portrait of Cullen depicts a surprisingly intelligent and complicated young man whose promising career was overwhelmed by his compulsion to kill, and whose shy demeanor masked a twisted interior life hidden even to his family and friends. Were it not for the hardboiled, unrelenting work of two former Newark homicide detectives racing to put together the pieces of Cullen’s professional past, and a fellow nurse willing to put everything at risk, including her job and the safety of her children, there’s no telling how many more lives could have been lost. In the tradition of In Cold Blood, The Good Nurse does more than chronicle Cullen’s deadly career and the breathless efforts to stop him; it paints an incredibly vivid portrait of madness and offers an urgent, terrifying tale of murder, friendship and betrayal.

“Vivid portrait of madness” and themes of murder, friendship, and betrayal definitely sound like something we would all love to see Aronofsky tackle—if and when he gets around to it.