Filming hasn't yet started on The Man From U.N.C.L.E., but Guy Ritchie may already have his next directorial project: an adaptation of the novel Empire Rising by Thomas Kelly.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. has optioned the 2006 novel, a love story set in 1930 during the construction of the Empire State Building, as a "potential" directing project for Ritchie. Kelly -- a producer on BBC America's Copper, another New York City-set period piece -- will write the screenplay, with Ritchie and his Sherlock Holmes collaborator Lionel Wigram producing.

Man of Steel star Henry Cavill and The Lone Ranger's Armie Hammer are both set to star in Ritchie's The Man from U.N.C.L.E., based on the 1960s TV series and currently in pre-production, also at Warner.