Thomas Langmann's La Petite Reine is fast-tracking Fantomas, a bigscreen adaptation of the French detective novels.

According to Variety, Christophe Gans (Silent Hill, Brotherhood of the Wolf) is writing the screenplay with David Martinez from an original story by Langmann. Gans also will direct.

Written by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre, and first published in 1911, the 43 "Fantomas" novels follow Fantomas, an ingenious but amoral master of disguise and sadistic killer. The literary franchise is also a Gallic national crime fiction treasure, having yielded multiple big- and smallscreen and comic-book adaptations.

Influenced by The Dark Knight, Langmann said, Gans' adaptation sees Fantomas facing off with a villain of equal or even more dastardly dimensions. The film will shoot in French and English, and begin casting shortly.