Carrie director Brian De Palma will helm an adaptation of the Gardner McKay novel Toyer, according to Vulture.

Reports of this project originally surfaced six years ago, but now it will finally get off the ground as an independent production.

Toyer is the story of a serial lunatic who psychologically toys with his female victims before putting them into a medically induced coma. The police can only charge the perpetrator with mayhem, so it is up to a female neurologist and a newspaper editor to bring him to justice.

The film will be set in Venice, Italy, during the month-long festival Carnevale di Venezia. The festival, for which elaborate masks are traditionally worn, occurs in February and March, but De Palma will recreate his own Carnival on location instead. The novel was originally set in Los Angeles.

Tarak Ben Ammar (Hannibal Rising) and Scott Steindorff (The Human Stain) are financing and producing the film.

"It has all the elements of suspense that Brian does so well in films like 'Blow Out' and 'Carrie,'" Steindorff said. "And by that I mean, it's really frickin' scary: I read the script on a plane, and I was still terrified."

Production is tentatively set to begin in November.