Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx delivered a couple of their best performances in last year's Django Unchained, and apparently enjoyed working together enough to repeat the experience.

DiCaprio's Appian Way company will produce a feature version of the upcoming crime novel Mean Business on North Ganson Street. Written by S. Craig Zahler, the book has been acquired by Warner Bros., who is currently seeking a publisher. DiCaprio will produce alongside Appian Way's Jennifer Davisson Killoran, with Sarah Schechter overseeing for the studio.

The novel's plot follows a disgraced detective (DiCaprio) who is sent to a town in Missouri where violent crime is on the rise. Deadline provides the following synopsis:

Partnered with an equally bad-assed detective who was demoted for publicly brutalizing a suspect (Foxx), the new partners get to do some real work. Police officers start showing up dead execution-style, and the cops think it might be open season on Victory’s police department.

DiCaprio and Foxx - Django Unchained
Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio in 'Django Unchained'

The project certainly sounds promising, echoing classic, 70's-era crime flicks like Serpico and The French Connection but with the modern edge of something like Heat. There are no details about who could potentially direct, but Zahler will be adapting his own book for the screen.

With DiCaprio, Foxx and the former's Appian Way staying so busy, the real question is when - and maybe if - we'll actually see Mean Business. DiCaprio is starring in Martin Scorcese's upcoming The Wolf of Wall Street, and is being eyed for the role of infamous Russian mystic Rasputin; Foxx plays the President in White House Down and will be the villain Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Not to mention the projects on Appian Way's slate: Ben Affleck's adaptation of Gone Baby Gone author Dennis Lehane's Live By Night, director Brad Furman's gambling thriller Runner Runner, and director Scott Cooper's revenge tale Out of the Furnace.

That's a heavy line-up, and with DiCaprio's recent comments about taking a break from acting, this project could find itself languishing. Announcements like this one for Mean Business on North Ganson Street (lets hope that killer title stays put) tend to pop up, gain a director, then vanish into the development ether, but when it involves names like DiCaprio and Foxx, people pay attention. Still, it would be fun to see the two stars transport their surprisingly strong chemistry to a modern-era cop flick, and the material sounds solid.

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Expect more details on Mean Business on North Ganson Street as they become available. 

In the meantime, you can catch Jamie Foxx in White House Down, in theaters today. Leonardo DiCaprtio will be The Wolf of Wall Street in theaters on November 15, 2013.

Source: Deadline