Matt Bomer, coming off a starring role in American Horror Story: Hotel, has been tapped as the lead in The Last Tycoon, Amazon Studios’ drama pilot based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s final unfinished novel. The project, from Sony’s TriStar Television, was quietly ordered earlier this month as cast-contingent. The casting of Bomer lifts the contingency, clearing the pilot for production.

The Last Tycoon, which Sony TV set up at Amazon a year ago, was written by Captain Phillips scribe Billy Ray who is set to direct the pilot.

Inspired by the life of film mogul Irving Thalberg, on whom the book’s protagonist Monroe Stahr was based, The Last Tycoon centers on Stahr (Bomer), 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 Pat Brady, a character based on Louis B. Mayer. With Stahr as a focal point, the series delves into the true violence, sex and towering ambition of Hollywood in the ’30s. Ray executive produces alongside Party Of Five co-creator Chris Keyser, who serves as showrunner, as well as Perri Kipperman, Josh Maurer, David Stern and Alix Witlin.

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In The Last Tycoon 1976 big-screen adaptation directed by Elia Kazan and written by Harold Pinter, the role of Stahr was played by Robert De Niro.

Following his six-season stint as star of USA’s crime drama White Collar, Bomer is playing one of the leads in the latest installment of FX’s American Horror Story, Hotel. His role in HBO Films’ The Normal Heart earned him a Golden Globe and an Emmy nomination. In features, Bomer co-stars in the Magic Mike franchise and will next be seen in The Nice Guys and The Magnificent Seven. He is repped by CAA, Anonymous Content and attorney Steve Warren.