Matthew McConaughey has signed on to star in a comedy, but in a shocking twist, it won’t involve Sarah Jessica Parker or the ghosts of girlfriends past. It will, however, involve Academy Award winning director William Friedkin and a script by Pulitzer Prize winning writer Tracy Letts.

Killer Joe, co-staring Emile Hirsch, follows a pair of siblings "who plot the death of their mother for the insurance money." McConaughey will play "Killer Joe" Cooper, a dirty cop hired to do the deed.

Will McConaughey’s collaboration with Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist) prove as successful as his previous collaboration with director Tom Dey (Failure to Launch, Marmaduke)? Only time will tell. (THR)