Deadline says the the story is being told "with an H.P. Lovecraft influence" and that "this gives new momentum to the pic." I revealed last year that the Sony project included a large element of the supernatural with Chung Ling Soo playing a pivotal role. It's unclear if Francis Lawrence is still attached to direct.
Curiously, Deadline also says that Summit/Lionsgate is still moving forward with their own Houdini project based on the Kalush/Sloman book, The Secret Life Of Houdini, and that "there were rumors Johnny Depp was interested." But with Lionsgate co-producing this year's Houdini miniseries with A&E and HISTORY, I would be surprised to see them launch a second Houdini project that would compete with themselves (Lionsgate and Summit merged in 2012).
Of course, the Sony/Columbia Houdini movie has been in development for many, many years (45 to be exact), so I wouldn't get excited about this just yet.
Click here for a list of all the Houdini projects currently in development in Hollywood.
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An H.P. Lovecraft influence? Didn't he ghostwrite for Houdini too? How appropriate. :)
ReplyDeleteWell, here's hoping something comes of this...
Yep, Lovecraft penned a few stories for HH, including Under The Pyramids. But I think this is just a way of saying that this project has an element of the supernatural, which is what I spilled last year.
DeleteBut I'm not sure Francis Lawrence is still attached to direct, and news of a new writer is not really a step forward. This thing is still clearly marooned in development hell. But it would be nice to see something happen.