Academy Award-winner Mahershala Ali is starring in and executive producing a crime thriller movie based on A.J. Wolfe’s upcoming book “Burn.”

Anonymous Content has acquired the movie rights with Anonymous Content’s Nicole Clemens and Kevin Cotter producing the project. Fredrick Kotto, a former detective who has become a screenwriter, has been hired to write the adaptation and will executive produce along with Ali and Artillery Creative’s Tom Carter.

The book is a contemporary crime thriller and love story set in the ultra-violent world of organized crime. It follows a Northern California detective who destroyed a cartel while keeping his undercover life secret from his family. Paradigm is handling the publishing rights.

Ali won the best supporting actor Oscar this year for his role as the mentor Juan in Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight.” Other credits include the final two “Hunger Games” movies, “Hidden Figures,” and the upcoming “Battle Angel: Alita.” He has been attached to star in the Participant Films drama “Green Book” and is the lead in the third season of the HBO police anthology series “True Detective.”

Ali is repped by WME and Anonymous Content. Wolfe and Kotto are represented by Paradigm and Artillery Creative. The news was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.