His novels have been adapted into critically acclaimed films such as the Coen brothers' No Country For Old Men and John Hillcoat's The Road, but American author Cormac McCarthy has now surprised Hollywood by turning in a screenplay of his own, reports Deadline.

Agents for the 78-year-old Pulitzer prize-winner had been expecting the first draft of a new book, but received instead what is believed to be McCarthy's first "spec" script for a new movie. It has been picked up by Nick Wechsler, Steve Schwartz and Paula Mae Schwartz, the producers of The Road, for an undisclosed fee.

Deadline reports that the screenplay, called The Counselor, is set in the modern-day south-west of the US and recalls the hard-boiled world of No Country For Old Men. It depicts a respected lawyer who bites off more than he can chew after foolishly getting involved in the drug business. Such a storyline recalls Sean Penn's Golden Globe-nominated turn in the 1993 Brian De Palma gangster film Carlito's Way.

"The spec falls smack in the middle of what everyone responds to with Cormac's novels," Wechsler told Deadline. Steve Schwartz added: "Since McCarthy himself wrote the script, we get his own muscular prose directly, with its sexual obsessions. It's a masculine world into which, unusually, two women intrude to play leading roles. McCarthy's wit and humour in the dialogue make the nightmare even scarier. This may be one of McCarthy's most disturbing and powerful works."

McCarthy has written a screenplay before, according to his biography on the Cormac McCarthy Society's website. Between 1974 and 1975 he worked on a TV film titled The Gardener's Son, which was first shown in January 1977. It was based on historical events and set in South Carolina.