Mandalay Independent Pictures has picked up screen rights for Salvation Boulevard, the upcoming mystery novel by Larry Beinhart. George Ratliff is set to write and direct the script.

According to Variety, Salvation Boulevard will be published in the fall by Nation Books, and has a satirical bent targeting organized religion.

The story revolves around a private detective who investigates the killing of a professor. The exercise proves to be a clash of faiths: The detective is a born-again Christian, the dead man an atheist, the accused killer an Islamic foreign student and the D.A. is Jewish.

"The book uses a mystery to examine the religious process, the mega-churches and how they manipulate minds," said Mandalay prexy Cathy Schulman. "It is tricky terrain, but George is a filmmaker with a distinguishable voice.

No production date has been set.