In what could be the first film in a noirish franchise for 20th Century Fox, Leonardo DiCaprio is attached to star as Travis McGee, a fictional Floridian gumshoe who lives on a houseboat, in The Deep Blue Goodbye. The film is an adaptation of the popular 1964 novel—nearly identical in title—by late pulp-fiction author John D. MacDonald. It marked the debut in an influential, entertaining 21-book series that spans an American landscape from the Kennedy to the Regan administrations. The screenplay was written by Dana Stevens (Sam Raimi’s For the Love of the Game, Blink).

In the novel, McGee, a trusty and attractive 6′ 4″ bachelor, faces anxiety and financial woes and works as a “salvager” in Fort Lauderdale, collecting monies and property for his clients. The plot revolves around treasure buried in the Florida Keys during WWII, a murderous felon who catches wind of this while incarcerated, and an eventual showdown between the two. Also: shady women with bedroom eyes. McGee’s aforementioned houseboat is called the Busted Flush, a prize won in a poker game that helps define his marina-bum lifestyle.