Gary Ross may team up with Summit for 'Houdini'

After bowing out of directing the sequel to The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Gary Ross is now considering directing The Secret Life of Houdini, The Making of America's First Superhero for Summit. Summit and Hunger Games studio Lionsgate are in the process of merging operations right now, so he's essentially still with the same studio.

Interestingly, Francis Lawrence, the I Am Legend director who was picked to direct Catching Fire, also had a Houdini project in the works. Simply titled Houdini, the Columbia version is in the scripting stage with Scott Frank (Marley & Me, Minority Report) penning the screenplay. In Hollywood, where there's one good idea there's usually an identical second idea in the wings. That appears to be the case here.

However, Ross' potential project would be able to draw from a 600-page, exhaustive biography of Houdini by William Kalush (a magician) and Larry Sloman (a writer). The "get" in their version is suggestive evidence that Houdini was also a spy. Summit's idea was not to make a biopic, but rather to create an Indiana Jones/Sherlock Holmes-esque franchise that would put the magician on a series of spy-driven adventures.

This battle of the projects reminds me of the two 2006 magician projects, The Illusionist and The Prestige, which earned $39 million and $53 million, respectively--less than if there had only been one film?

I love the idea of a Houdini biopic, but not so much the serial, franchised version of Houdini. Sherlock Holmes the movie is about quick laughs and big action sequences. "Sherlock Holmes" the BBC television series is quieter, slower, more about character development. Houdini could actually be an interesting person to star in one of those adult television dramas populating the airwaves. That being said, Ross writes great characters, so certainly his take on the project would include some backstory and character development, instead of simply tying together a string of magical feats. Hopefully this project will have better success at the box office than Houdini himself: He started out in the movies before abandoning the industry, citing meager profits.