CAPTAIN PHILLIPS Writer Billy Ray to Adapt F. Scott Fitzgerald's LAST TYCOON for HBO

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS writer Billy Ray is set to bring F. Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished novel THE LAST TYCOON to HBO.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the network has enlisted Ray to write and executive produce, and potentially direct the pilot if its given an order. Chris Keyser has been named showrunner, and will also executive produce.

Unfinished at the time of his death at age 44, Fitzgerald's TYCOON is inspired by famed movie producer Irving Thalberg. HBO's adaptation follows "on Monroe Stahr, Hollywood's first wunderkind studio executive in the 1930s as he climbs to the height of power, pitting him against his mentor and current head of the studio. With Stahr as a focal point, the series will unveil the true violence, sex and towering ambition of Hollywood in the 1930s."

THE LAST TYCOON was also adapted for the big screen in 1976 by Harold Pinter, which starred Robert De Niro.