With plenty of awards chatter following his turn in, and Oscar nomination for, Silver Linings Playbook, Bradley Cooper has broadened his appeal to studios beyond his Hangover background. He has plenty of projects on the go, but Warner Bros is adding one more, buying up James Remner’s novel The Man From Primrose Lane and developing it as a star vehicle for Cooper.

If he does take the lead (and he plans to produce the film too), Cooper would play crime writer David Neff, who investigates the odd murder mystery surrounding a recluse who lives on the titular lane, and is nicknamed “the man with a thousand mittens.”

Even as he gets obsessed with the case, Neff begins to realise that all is not quite as it seems and he soon discovers that he himself has a dangerous connection to a chain of serial murders. It all goes a little more surreal from there as our hero finds that not everything he thought was true about the universe lines up with the facts… (this is where you should imagine the Twilight Zone music playing in your noggin.)

Cooper’s been busy recently, working on such films as The Hangover III (due May 24), Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond The Pines (in cinemas April 12) and Serena (which doesn’t have a confirmed UK date yet). He’s set to reunite with Playbook’s David O. Russell for the director’s next, as-yet-untitled con man drama and is attached to Cameron Crowe’s current film, still bubbling away in development.