You never can tell what properties are going to get stuck in development hell and which will sail through to the screen. Back in 2002 it looked like it’d only be a matter of time before Glen David Gold’s acclaimed book Carter Beats The Devil was made into a major film. Paramount paid nearly a million for the rights, and Tom Cruise was attached to star. However it then got eclipsed by Tom’s interest in a different book about a magician (which wasn’t made either) and fell into a seemingly never-ending development hell. For a while it looked like it might become a TV series, but nothing happened there either.
Now Warner Bros. is resurrecting it, with Deadline reporting that they’ve picked up an option of the novel and set Michael Gilio to write the script. Gilio is fairly hot at the moment after working on Treasure Island for Paul Greengrass and The Interventionist for Alexander Payne.
The book itself melds history and magic, taking the real stage magician Charles Carter and getting him caught up in a fictional plot surrounding the death of president Warren G. Harding. Numerous people are after Carter because he knows an important secret about the invention of television, which all ends up with a literal magic show battle with the devil.