Simon Baker nabs "Killer" role

Actor Simon Baker attends the In Style/Warner Bros Golden Globes after party in Beverly Hills, California January 11, 2009.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Simon Baker, star of the hit series "The Mentalist," is playing an attorney on the trail of a murderer in "The Killer Inside Me," Michael Winterbottom's adaptation of the Jim Thompson noir classic that stars Casey Affleck.

The story centers on a West Texas sheriff (Affleck) and his downward spiral from bored small-town cop to ruthless, sociopathic murderer. The cast includes Jessica Alba as a prostitute and Kate Hudson as the sheriff's schoolteacher girlfriend.

Baker plays a county attorney trying to expose the sheriff as the killer.

The adaptation was written by Robert Weinbach and John Curran, director of "We Don't Live Here Anymore" and "The Painted Veil."

Baker, a native of Australia, plays a private investigator with psychic abilities on CBS' "Mentalist," a breakout hit of the 2008-09 television season.

(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)