Tom Hiddleston's dance card is well and truly marked in the near future, what with Thor 2 and Jim Jarmusch's "crypto-vampire love story" Only Lovers Left Alive. But he's just added one more jig: Hiddleston will be teaming up with Anna Paquin for the noirish Black Wings Has My Angel.

Based on a slice of 1950s pulp fiction by Elliott Chaze, the story involves a tough guy with a shady past mooching across the pre-freeway American landscape with a beautiful ex-hooker ("She had the face of a madonna, and a heart made of dollar bills," runs the blurb). The pair execute a daring armoured-car robbery, but their love/hate relationship starts to dangerously unravel in the aftermath.

Chaze never quite became a household name like James M. Cain or Jim Thompson, but is much admired in in-the-know circles, and could boast a fan in Ernest Hemingway.

Hiddleston will play anti-hero ex-con Tim Sunblade, with Paquin as his dangerous squeeze Virginia. The film has been developing slowly for several years, and had Elijah Wood attached to play Sunblade back in 2009. Reports this morning seem to suggest that Wood is still aboard, but if Hiddleston is indeed Sunblade, the role earmarked for Wood is currently unclear.

Mexican director Alfonso Pineda Ulloa will make his Hollywood debut with the film. He's also one of three credited screenwriters: the other two are Christopher Peditto and the David Lynch-approved Barry Gifford (Wild At Heart, Lost Highway).

Shooting starts in September. And for more Hiddleston, check out our recent webchat.