Comingsoon.net  has confirmed that busy Oscar nominated actor Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton) has signed on for a devilish role in the crime thriller, Good People.  James Franco, Kate Hudson, and Omar Sy (The Intouchables) are already on board.

Good People is being adapted by Kelly Masterson (Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead), Paul Grelling, and Christina Hodson from Marcus Sakey’s best-selling novel of the same name. The film should not, however, be confused with the Broadway play Good People by David Lindsay-Abair, starring Frances McDormand. While the latter centers on a single mother in Southie (Boston), the movie is about a young American couple living in the husband’s family home in England as they try to start a family. They find themselves drowning in debt and desperation until their downstairs tenant suddenly dies and they find $400,000 cash hidden in the man’s apartment. As tends to happen with such things, taking the money puts the couple squarely in the crosshairs of ruthless criminals who have been double-crossed.

Millenium Films has started production at Shepperton Studios, England. Good People,  is the English-language debut film of Oscar nominated Danish director Henrik Genz (Terribly Happy).

Tobey Maguire (The Great Gatsby), was originally slated to star in the film but decided to produce instead, along with Thomas Gammeltoft, Eric Kranzler, Mark Gill and Avi Lerner. James Franco has since taken over the leading role, thanks in large part to Maguire’s involvement. The film is projected to be released in 2014.

Tom Wilkinson can be seen next in Gore Vebinski’s hot summer blockbuster The Lone Ranger, with Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer, premiering this July 3.