Harry Houdini film: 10 Cloverfield Lane director in talks to helm.
More on the Harry Houdini film below.
Image: Universal
After knocking it right out of the park with 10 Cloverfield Lane, filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg is in talks to tackle a major Harry Houdini biopic over at Lionsgate.
The planned film will be based on William Kalush and Larry Sloman’s book “The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America’s First Superhero,” with the story reimagining Houdini as not just a master escape artist but an investigator of the world of the occult.
Harry Houdini was born on March 24, 1874 in Budapest, Hungary, with the name of Ehrich Weisz, but was known around the world for his stage name, as the American illusionist and stunt performer, noted for his sensational escape acts.
Trachtenberg is in negotiations to helm the project, which was originally conceived back in 2014 with Johnny Depp in the lead role.
Here’s a little more about the story from the source material.
Handcuff King. Escape Artist. International Superstar. Since his death eighty-eight years ago, Harry Houdini s life has been chronicled in books, in film, and on television. Now, in this groundbreaking biography, renowned magic expert William Kalush and bestselling writer Larry Sloman team up to find the man behind the myth. Drawing from millions of pages of research, they describe in vivid detail the passions that drove Houdini to perform ever-more-dangerous feats, his secret life as a spy, and a pernicious plot to subvert his legacy. The Secret Life of Houdini traces the arc of the master magician s life from desperate poverty to worldwide fame his legacy later threatened by a group of fanatical Spiritualists led by esteemed British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Initiating the reader along the way into the arcane world of professional magic, Kalush and Sloman decode a life based on deception, providing an intimate and riveting portrayal of Houdini, the man and the legend.”
More on the Harry Houdini film as it comes our way.
