Houdini Biopic To Be Scripted By Scott Frank For Francis Lawrence

I mean it when I say that I think one of the best films on release at the moment is Francis Lawrence‘s adaptation of Water for Elephants. I wasn’t a fan of his previous films I Am Legend or Constantine but his period set circus drama really worked for me. So I’m quite excited that he will be returning to a similar period with his next film Houdini, a biopic about the famous magician Harry Houdini.

The film has gone through several filmmakers but Lawrence and producer Jimmy Miller have settled on screenwriter Scott Frank to help them bring it to the screen. The approach they are taking appears to be more down a grittier more realistic root. The Hollywood Reporter gives us this:

It sees Houdini striving to expose a troubled, beautiful spiritualist as a fraud. As he becomes obsessed with her, he starts to believe she’s authentic, only to uncover what appears to be a tragic scam.

Frank is an accomplished writer having given us lean, tense often funny scripts such as Get Shorty, Out of Sight and Minority Report, and only having blotted his copy with the sentimental clap trap that was Marley & Me. The project is set up at Columbia and we’ll keep you posted as we hear more.