Warner Bros. is developing the project with the duo, and is bringing on board scribes Kieran and Michele Mulroney, who wrote the upcoming Sherlock Holmes sequel for the studio.

Hunchback, a 1831 novel by Victor Hugo, tells the story of Quasimodo, a deformed and hunch-backed bell-ringer at the Norte Dame cathedral who tragically falls in love with beautiful gypsy named Esmerelda.

The book has long intrigued the world of film and television-- it was first adapted in 1905 into a film entitled Esmerelda -- although the last major adaptations were in 1997, the year that saw a high-profile Disney animated movie and an action-heavy picture starring Mandy Patinkin and Salma Hayek.

The book features Quasimodo fighting off troops, love and betrayal, a hanging, a swing from the bell tower and bodies and graves galore; in short, stuff that seems tailor-made for Burton.

But the project, being spearheaded by Brolin, who would also produce as well as star, is in the nascent stages. Burton, who is in pre-production on "Dark Shadows" for Warners, is interested, but his commitment is dependent on the outcome of the script.

If Hunchback does come to pass, it would be Brolin's second crack at a deformed personage after starring as the title character in Jonah Hex, Warners' western featuring the facially-scarred DC Comics anti-hero.