Paramount Pictures has hired X-Men scribe David Hayter to adapt Black Monday, Bob Reiss' novel about a catastrophic virus that destroys the world's oil supply. Tom Jacobson is producing.

Variety reports, the book, to be published by Simon & Schuster, was bought in a preemptive deal last fall, when Reiss had written only the first 100 pages. The protagonist is a federal investigator who tries to stop the spread of the virus. Hayter said the studio sees it as a large-scale disaster pic.

"The basic concept is similar conceptually to Roland Emmerich's 'Day After Tomorrow,' in that it is highly visual and exciting, but it is socially conscious with something to say," Hayter said. "We find out how disastrous it is to be so heavily vested in one resource."