Nicolas Cage and director David Fincher are lined up to star in and direct a movie adaptation of the comic book "Hard Boiled," Variety reports.

Cage, currently on screen in "Captain Corelli's Mandolin," has lately been developing a number of comic-based projects. He recently dropped off the planned big-screen treatment of Marvel's "Ghost Rider."

Variety said the Frank Miller-Geoff Darrow title "Hard-Boiled" was first published in 1992 and told the story of a robot working as a tax collector.

Fincher ("Seven," "Fight Club") is lined up to direct the project, should Warner Bros. Pictures manage to secure rights to the title from Miller and Darrow.

If the project materializes, the producers may have to consider a title change. Hong Kong action master John Woo ("Mission: Impossible 2") enjoyed one of his biggest successes with a cops-and-mobsters thriller that was released in North America under the title "Hard-Boiled."

Darrow drew the original comic book that spawned "The Matrix." Comic auteur Miller is currently collaborating with "Requiem For A Dream's" Darron Aronofsky on an adaptation of his title "Batman: Year One."

Fincher is also expected to lens an adaptation of Anthony Bourdain's novel "Kitchen Confidential: Adventures In The Culinary Underbelly," under the title "Seared," Variety said.


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