Sea of Love is a 1989 American neo-noir thriller film directed by Harold Becker, written by Richard Price and starring Al Pacino, Ellen Barkin and John Goodman. The story concerns a New York City detective trying to catch a serial killer who finds victims through the singles column in a newspaper.It is inspired by Price's 1978 novel Ladies' Man. The film does not credit the novel Ladies’ Man as source material because the novel only shares a similar main idea, while having different characters, a different plot and a different theme. Writer Richard Price said he wanted to explore the same idea as Ladies’ Man, but make the protagonist cooler to an audience (by making him a cop and giving him a gun). The film involves the investigation of a serial killer which is completely absent from the book. Dustin Hoffman was originally in negotiations to star, before Pacino became interested in the project. It was Pacino's first film after a four-year hiatus following the critical and commercial failure of Revolution. Sea of Love was a box-office success, grossing over $110 million.