According to Variety, Phoenix Pictures has optioned "The Brass Wall" and will build the crime book into a starring vehicle for Mark Ruffalo. Phoenix's Mike Medavoy and Arnie Messer will produce.

Written by New York Times reporter David Kocieniewski, book chronicles an incident of police corruption in New York.

When an undercover cop infiltrated the Lucchesi crime family to solve the murder of a city firefighter, he discovered the tipster was the son of a high-ranking police official.

Ruffalo will play the undercover cop who cracked the case.

Phoenix execs Brad Fischer and David Thwaites will shepherd development of the book, which was sold by ICM. Phoenix will put a filmmaker on first to supervise a screenwriter.

The Brass Wall marks the third collaboration between Phoenix and Ruffalo. He wrapped the Steve Zaillian-directed All the King's Men, which Sony releases Dec. 16, and just began shooting the David Fincher-directed Zodiac, which Phoenix is producing.