There scattered reports earlier this year that Summit Entertainment purchased the film rights to William Kalush and Larry Sloman’s biography, The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America’s First Superhero, to make “an action thriller featuring a character who is part Indiana Jones and part Sherlock Holmes.”
Entertainment web site IGN opined Summit’s decision to stray from the bio-pic format was to build a franchise on Houdini’s fame; not necessarily his life.
The studio announced in March 2009, it was looking for a writer to craft the story and build the super-hero character.
They apparently found their writer and his credits fit the need for a super-hero take on Houdini.
Jeff Nathanson, writer of Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will write the script. Mr. Nathanson worked with Steven Spielberg on Catch Me if You Can and the horrible waste of celluloid The Terminal. His action credits also include Rush Hour 2 and Speed 2: Cruise Control.
IGN was not able to receive confirmation of the writing assignment from Mr. Nathanson’s Hollywood agents, CAA.
Summit was apparently excited by the book’s suggestion that Houdini was a spy for Britain, and possibly murdered by spiritualists in retribution for his very effective debunking of their craft. The book certainly made the suggestions but offered very little support for either the spy or murder claim.
News of this potential deal brings up a sore subject for us here at Inside Magic.
We must have seen the movie more than any other, save The Wizard of Oz.
Tony Curtis’ portrayal of Harry Houdini in the classic 1953 story of the great magician’s life and death was more than inspiring — it was perspiring.
After seeing the film for the first time, we tried every escape an eight-year-old can create. In any other household, cries of “C’mon, Mom. Tie me up good this time!”" would likely bring an intervention or rescue.
It was a bit disheartening to learn Houdini did not die as portrayed in the film. But that’s Hollywood.
We met Tony Curtis in Las Vegas a few years back. He was still in great shape and looked ready to make another dozen films. Let’s not kid ourselves, he was and remains one heck of a good-looking man.
Check out the live showing of Houdini at the Million Dollar Theater in Los Angeles on June 13th. The film is part of the Jules Verne Adventures Festival.
Inside Magic Favorite Curtis Lovell III will be performing an incredible escape in celebration and in the spirit of Houdini.
The young, Australian museum curator Simon Gregg believes “the history of Melbourne as two parallel stories: one about the development of a modern-day metropolis and the other about the emergence of floating ladies, vanishing handkerchiefs, straitjacket escapes and a bottomless barrel of logic-defying tricks and illusions.”
Mr. Gregg is featured in a big way in Melbourne’s The Age for his new museum exhibit Hocus Pocus: Melbourne Magic, Mystery and Illusion. The show starts next week, December 6, at the beautiful City Museum. The focus is “the city’s so-called golden era of magic, from 1850 to 1950.”
Gold was discovered in Melbourne’s environs during the 19th Century. And where there is gold, there are people. And where there are people, there are audiences. And where there is an audience, there is bound to be at least one magician.
Mr. Gregg believes Melbourne’s “emergence as a magic town came to be after the discovery of gold and the subsequent population explosion of the 1850s.”
He performs an escape attempt each Halloween as a tribute to Houdini. The escapes are never easy and rarely safe, but always the subject of great media attention.
Performing escape attempts that combine high risk and great difficulty is sure bet for unexpected and tragic results. Perhaps that is why the press follows each attempt so closely.
Quoth Houdini: No one wants to see someone die, but they want to be there if it happens.
A quarter century ago, Mr. Gunnarson came with in a breath or two of losing his life in an underwater escape dedicated to Houdini.
Curtis Lovell is well-known to television audiences. He cut Paris Hilton in half on her show The Simple Life, provided instructions to escape from handcuffs on the Spike TV show Manswers. He called out David Blaine and John “I talk to dead people” Edward.
Neither performer had the guts to take him up on a magic duel.
Mr. Lovell made a great impression with his performance of his Cube of Death on the USA Network’s Road Characters.
On the 84th anniversary of Houdini’s passing, Mr. Lovell literally went underground.
By performing an escape Houdini himself said was too dangerous to repeat, Mr. Lovell took an enormous risk — an not just to his career.
The Buried Alive escape is a test of physical endurance and mental focus. Oxygen is in short supply and panic is a constant enemy; ready to steal the limited amount trapped within the sealed coffin.
There scattered reports earlier this year that Summit Entertainment purchased the film rights to William Kalush and Larry Sloman’s biography, The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America’s First Superhero, to make “an action thriller featuring a character who is part Indiana Jones and part Sherlock Holmes.”
We must have seen the movie more than any other, save The Wizard of Oz.
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