Water for Elephants director Francis Lawrence is in talks to direct a new biopic based on the life of magician and escapologist Harry Houdini for Sony Pictures.The studio has been looking to make the project for several years, with director Paul Verhoeven attached to direct the biopic back in the late 1990s. That version was said to take a deeper look into the illusionist’s mysterious life. Variety reports that Sony will take a new direction now, while keeping the period setting.
However Lawrence’s film has competition, as in February Summit Entertainment announced that it is moving forward with its own Harry Houdini biopic entitled The Secret Life of Houdini. Noah Oppenheim is writing the script, based on the biography of the same name by William Kalush and Larry Sloman.
Only one if likely to make it to the big screen, and time will tell which of them it’s be. However Houdini is certainly an interesting figure. The son of a Hungarian Rabbi, he rose to become one of the most famous people in the world with his amazing acts of escapologist. He was also fond of debunking psychics (although Arthur Conan Dolye thought Houdini was a psychic who pretended to do magic).