It seems that Working Title, the British production company behind everything from Notting Hill and Nanny McPhee to Frost/Nixon and the upcoming Paul, haven’t been put off by the failure of The Sorceror’s Apprentice, as THR reports they want to bring wizards into the modern day too.
This time around though it would be the most famous one of all, Merlin. Working Title has picked up a ptich by Jay Basu, and while most of the details of the plot are being kept under wraps, the idea is to put Merlin in a modern-day setting, although whether he’ll be a very old-man, still around from the days of King Arthur, or a newer, younger model, isn’t clear.
Merlin is a big pop-culture icon, and he’s worked on the big screen in Arthurian tales (and in the recent BBC TV series), but whether he’d survive a trip to the modern day isn’t clear. However Working Title thinks it’s worth getting Basu to develop it, so maybe there’s more to the pitch than just the high concept twist.