Warner Bros. Pictures have acquired the rights to sci-fi book
The Sparrow for Brad Pitt to produce, according to Variety.
Pitt has a longtime interest in the project, a potential starring vehicle for him. Writer Michael Seitzman ("North Country") is adapting Mary Doria Russell's debut novel of the same name.
Story revolves around a Jesuit priest who accompanies a crew of space travelers to a distant planet after Earth receives its first communication from an alien culture. The clergyman and crew befriend one of the planet's two races, unwittingly provoking a bloody war and shaking the foundations of the priest's faith.