Michael C. Hall's 'murderous scripts'

Michael C. Hall admits most of the screenplays he receives are “murderous” in some way.

The actor spent several years portraying titular serial killer Dexter in the Showtime TV series, and his role in forthcoming film Cold in July is equally dark.

Michael is getting used to the fact many casting directors believe he’d be a great fit for macabre parts.

“I’m often sent scripts that have some murderous or graveyard elements,” he told Entertainment Weekly.

Cold in July is based on the 1989 crime novel by Joe R. Lansdale, which centres on two fathers in 1980s East Texas who band together to uncover the truth behind a bloody revenge plot.

Michael was deeply impressed when he sat down to read the screenplay, which was written by Nick Damici, Jim Mickle and author Joe.

“It just smacked me in the face,” he recalled. “At that time, every script, every book, everything that I was reading was - and still is - just there to be one thing. You know, it’s going to be the evil kid movie or the teenagers-go-to-the-lake.

“Every script, no matter how good it was, always felt like it was declaring what it was in the first five pages and just spending the next 85 or 115 fulfilling its own promise without ever really trying to do anything else. I was so struck by this story that seemed to do that but then would jerk into something else - and then into something else.”

Cold in July, which also stars Don Johnson and Sam Shepard, debuted at the Sundance International Film Festival in January.