Focus Features has signed on George Clooney to star in A Very Private Gentleman, an adaptation of the Martin Booth novel to be directed by Anton Corbijn, according to Variety.

Rowan Joffe is scripting the pic.

Clooney will play an assassin who hides out in an idyllic Italian town before carrying out a final assignment. He resists his usual aversion to human interaction, and his friendships and romantic entanglements complicate his mission.

Production will begin in Italy this fall.