Warner Bros. has picked up the rights to Don Pendleton's Mack Bolan novel series with Bradley Cooper potentially starring as the protagonist. He will be re-teaming with The Hangover director Todd Phillips if the deal comes together.

Mack Bolan is the main character in a series of novels written by author Don Pendleton. The character was an expert sniper with over 90 kills to his record, earning him the nickname "The Executioner". He made his first appearance on the printed page in 1969's War Against the Mafia. The author wrote 37 other novels featuring the Mack Bolan character.

The author's wife, Linda Pendleton, explains the inspiration behind the novels.

"Don wrote the first novel in the series, War Against the Mafia out of his desire to express his discomfort with the reaction of many Americans to our soldiers who were dying for our country in the jungles of Vietnam and those coming home to outrageous verbal and physical abuse. So Mack Bolan became Don's symbolic statement. He also became every soldier's voice. Don created a heroic character in Bolan, a true hero who was dedicated to justice. The enemy that Bolan had to fight was no longer on the battlefields of Vietnam but right here on American soil, and that enemy was the Mafia."

Avatar 4 co-writer Shane Salerno with be penning the script and producing alongside Bradley Cooper and Todd Phillips. No production schedule has been released.