NEW YORK — Newly crowned Tony Awarding actor Tracy Letts is planning a quick return to Broadway — as a playwright.

Producers said Thursday Letts will reunite with director Pam MacKinnon next year for the Broadway premiere of "Killer Joe," his work about a meticulously smooth Dallas police detective with a side business as a hit man.

The project reunites Letts and MacKinnon, who worked together on the recent acclaimed revival of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" MacKinnon won the best directing Tony and Letts beat out Tom Hanks for best leading man in a drama Tony.

"Killer Joe" will be produced by Jeffrey Richards and Jerry Frankel, who helped produce the revival of Edward Albee's play.

Letts adapted his play into a movie in 2012, directed by Academy Award winner William Friedkin.