Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight, Olympus Has Fallen) has signed on to play the lead in the thriller Fade Out, with producer-turned-director Robert Salerno (21 Grams) at the helm. The film is from an original screenplay by Pulitzer Prize winning author and actor Michael Christofer (The Shadow Box).

In Fade Out, Eckhart will play Jim Connelly, a screenwriter who has suffered a nervous breakdown and returns home to be nursed by his wife Anne. He begins to write a new script that deals with a man in a similar situation whose wife is having an affair and goes missing. When Anne ends up missing the plot thickens to a tense thriller. Anthony Bregman of Likely Story and Naomi Despres of Artina Films are producing with Lisa Wilson and Myles Nestel of Solution Entertainment Group. Shooting is scheduled to begin in 2014.

Eckhart is currently shooting the micro-budget horror film Incarnate for Jason Blum and Blumhouse Studios in hopes of creating another Insidious franchise. Incarnate is being helmed by Brad Peyton (Journey 2:  The Mysterious Island). Eckhart has also been signed to the sequel to Olympus Has Fallen, London Has Fallen, in which will reprise his role as President Benjamin Asher alongside Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman.

See Echart next in I, Frankenstein with Bill Nighy (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), the Australian/American action-thriller written and directed by Stuart Beattie, based on the graphic novel and original screenplay by Kevin Grevioux which opens in IMAX theaters in January, 2014.