According to The Hollywood Reporter, Craig Brewer will write and direct Black Snake Moan for Paramount Classics.

The film, whose title comes from a 1920s blues record by Texas' Blind Lemon Jefferson, is the writer-director's follow-up feature to Hustle & Flow, the dramatic Audience Award winner at this year's Sundance Film Festival, set to be released July 13 by Paramount Classics and MTV Films.

Black, budgeted at about $13 million, reunites Brewster with Hustle producers John Singleton and Stephanie Allain. Paramount Classics is in negotiations with Samuel L. Jackson to play the lead. Christina Ricci is set to star, and Justin Timberlake is in discussions about a role.

In Black Snake Moan, Jackson would play Lazarus Woods, a God-fearing ex-blues musician who is a father figure to a sex-addicted woman played by Ricci. Justin Timberlake is being courted to play Ricci's b.f.