Director in talks for Houdini’s action adventure.
THR reports that Gary Ross (‘The Hunger Games,’ ‘Seabiscuit,’ ‘Pleasantville’) has entered talks to take the director’s chair for ‘Houdini,’ an action-orientated thriller centered on master magician and premier escape artist Harry Houdini.
With the most recent draft penned by Noah Oppenheim, the project is an adaptation of the biography ‘The Secret Life of Houdini, the Making of America’s First Superhero’ by William Kalush and Larry Sloman.
Released in 2006, the book became known for insinuating that Houdini acted as a spy for Britain, helped the Secret Service and was in cahoots with police organizations.
Summit Entertainment acquired the screen rights back in March 2009 with the plan to launch an action-thriller franchise that is part ‘Indiana Jones’ and part ‘Sherlock Holmes.’