Aaron Eckhart will star in psychological thriller 'Fade Out'.

The 'Thank You For Smoking' star has signed on to play the lead in veteran producer Robert Salerno's directorial debut about a screenwriter who loses his grip on reality.

Salerno - best known for his work on 'Arbitrage' and 'A Single Man' - has hired Anthony Bregman and Naomi Despres to oversee production, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Bregman commented: ''[It's] as irresistible as a potent Caribbean cocktail: a twisted mind-bending thriller set in a sun-soaked beach town - from a smart script full of surprising twists, and with true artists in front of and behind the camera.''

Eckhart will play a man recovering from a nervous breakdown at a beachside villa while his wife tends to his every need. He begins writing a screenplay in which a cuckolded husband murders his cheating wife, but truth and fiction soon start to blur as he loses sight of reality.

'The Witches Of Eastwick' screenwriter Michael Cristofer is busy penning the Hitchcockian thriller's script before filming kicks off in Puerto Rico next February.

Eckhart has recently been confirmed to reprise his role as President Benjamin Asher in the 'Olympus Has Fallen' sequel, and has also signed on to star in forthcoming horror movie 'Incarnate'.