Oscar-winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen are set to write, and possibly direct, the Warner Bros. adaptation of Ross Macdonald's crime novel "Black Money," Deadline reports.

Published in 1966, "Black Money" follows Macdonald's private-eye protagonist Lew Archer as he's hired by the jilted lover of a wealthy woman to dig into the background of her new husband. The investigation exposes an intricate conspiracy tied to the cover-up of a seven-year-old suicide and a sizable gambling debt.

Macdonald (aka Kenneth Millar), who passed away in 1983, considered "Black Money" his best novel.

The film will be produced by Joel Silver, who will also co-finance with Warner Bros. through his Silver Pictures Entertainment.