It’s a tale of two Howards and one Bana for New Line’s latest acquisition - serial killer thriller Factor X - as Terrence Howard and Eric Bana have signed on to a script written by Ali scribe Gregory Allen Howard.

The story tracks the real-life hunt by a Kansas detective for a slaughter-happy villain known as the BTK killer - the initials standing for his charming trick of binding, torturing and killing his victims. Terrorising the local area between 1974 and 1991, BTK was nabbed in 2005 after the dogged detective teamed with a counterterrorism expert with some theories as to how to narrow down the suspect list. And as for the title, that would be the motive for his deadly spree, as mentioned in taunting letters he sent to the police.

Howard hatched the idea for the script when he met the counterterrorism genius, Stanley Campbell, at a party. Convinced that he had to write the story, he pushed Campbell to release the rights, promising not to make an exploitative film. Bana has agreed to play the cop, while Terrence Howard is Campbell.

With Ridley Scott’s production company on board to shepherd the film through development, this could end up being on Sir Rid’s to-do list.