When Gary Ross turned down the directing gig on Catching Fire, we knew he must have had some pretty big plans that he simply couldn't ignore. Never a director who likes to repeat himself, Ross is venturing about as far away from The Hunger Games as he can, with THR reporting that he's entered talks to direct Houdini, a long gestating biopic on the famous magician and escape artist.
He'll be taking over for Jeff Nathanson, who was once attached to write and direct the film, an adaptation of The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero by Larry Sloman and William Kalush. Noah Oppenheim wrote the most recent draft of the script, with Summit Entertainment hoping to turn it into some sort of Sherlock Holmes-esque adventure. Actually, that's not a bad idea, considering the biography pretty much states that Harry Houdini was a British spy when not busy performing daring escapes and debunking con artists.
Ironically, this is one of two Houdini projects that have been slow to get off the ground. The other is being set up by Columbia Pictures, and has long had Francis Lawrence attached to direct it. Lawrence is also the guy who won the Catching Fire job after Ross departed.
