Famed magician Houdini’s life will once again be explored on the big-screen, as Reuters reports that Summit Entertainment has picked up the film rights to The Secret Life of Houdini, a 2006 biography of the famed man written by William Kalush and Larry Sloman.
The book was best known for implying that Harry Houdini acted as a spy for Britain and was asked to be an adviser to Czar Nicholas II’s court in pre-revolutionary Russia. It also portrayed the illusionist as a debunker of con artists who pretended to be spiritualists, leading to the theory that his death was caused by spiritual movement as payback.
Summit is looking to turn the book into an action thriller that could lead to a potential franchise.
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Taking shots at the recent ‘fashionable’ look at vampires in Twilight and HBO’s True Blood, Summit Entertainment has scooped up the rights to a screenplay called Elevator Men.
Developed by former Dreamworks executive Marc Haimes, the film will explore vampire-human interactions from a different angle, showing the dark, sinister version of what really happens when one gets too close to really bad things. The creatures in the script play diabolical mind games with people, including one that involves an elevator.
Mark Gordon and Josh McLaughlin will produce.
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It looks like Twilight star Robert Pattinson will work with Summit Entertainment in the romance-drama Memoirs.
Allen Coulter, whose credits include “Hollywoodland,” “The Sopranos” and “Damages,” is looking at taking the helm to direct Memoirs.
The script, originally penned by Will Fetters, follows on a pair of star-crossed lovers who meet and fall in love while under pressure to deal with family tragedies that jeopardizes their relationship. Jenny Lumet (Rachel Getting Married) is aboard to rewrite.
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Just the other day I posted news that Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke was negotiating on Maximum Ride 
series as director. But yesterday events changed. Hardwicke and Summit Entertainment have made up their creative differences with the director signing on for the company’s fantasy-drama If I Stay.
Twilight success brought in $380 million worldwide grosses. Hardwicke and Summit went their separate ways in December over her directing New Moon, the second Twilight installment. Hardwicke decided not to direct the sequel because of creative differences.
Now, according to Variety Hardwicke and Summit are working together on If I Stay.
The fantasy story is based on Gayle Forman’s novel of the same name, due to be published this spring. The tale follows a gifted classical musician and her independent rock star boyfriend who’s forced to choose between life and death when she’s in a car accident with her family.
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At the New York Comic Con, Summit Entertainment presented to the press some images from the movie Astroboy with butt cannons. Summit even included some footage of Astroboy flying through Metro City. You can head over to io9.com to get the full details.
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The trades are reporting that Summit Entertainment has pushed back acclaimed romantic adventure The Brothers Blood by four months for release in Summer 2009. It was originally slated to open earlier this Fall and then moved to a January 16 release.
The film will now open in a limited run on May 15, 2009 followed by a wide release on May 29. The decision to delay the film is said to be influenced by similar upscale features next month.
The Brothers Bloom has rich expert con artists Bloom and Stephen engage in their last job where they have to show beautiful and eccentric heiress Penelope the time of her life with a romantic adventure that takes them around the world.
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Variety’s Anne Thompson wrote a rather large column on Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke’s decision to bow out of the sequel New Moon. It looks like creative differences is the reason. Summit Entertainment, the production company, wants to rush the sequel to a release date at the end of 2009 or the start of 2010.
Behind the scenes, screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg handed over a draft of New Moon the same weekend its predecessor opened. The book, “New Moon,” is focused on werewolves not vampires, which left the heartthrob Edward out of the picture. Summit wanted Edward in the storyline more, which Rosenberg had figured out. But, Hardwicke felt the script needed more work.
Needless to say, negotiations lasted two weeks until the decision came out this weekend. Now, no director is attached and Summit is moving forward.
As Anne Thompson pointed out in her column Hardwicke delivered the biggest opening weekend ever for a woman director. The movie is still performing strong while the director and cast promote it overseas. If you check out Screenhead’s Box Office Report, you’ll see that Twilight came in second with $13.2 million.
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Summit Entertainment is so confident of Twilight’s success before its release that it has acquired the film rights to the next three novels in Steph anie Meyer’s vampire series. The first film is due out in one week.
The second and third books “New Moon” and “Eclipse” will be handled by Twilight scribe Melissa Rosenberg. No one is yet attached to adapt the fourth novel “Breaking Dawn.”
The second and third books continue the relationship between Bella and Edward, average teenage girl and vampire, respectively. “Breaking Dawn” pushes the relationship further with a marriage between Bella and Edward; evil empires are also brought in.
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Twilight release date was pushed up to November 21 because Summit Entertainment decided to take advantage of the box office sales due to the vacancy caused by Warner Bros. surprise decision to move Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to July.
Twilight is a vampire romance, based on the first of four bestselling vampire novels by Stephenie Meyer. It was scheduled to open December 12 opposite The Day the Earth Stood Still. Once WB confirmed its Harry Potter shift on Thursday, Summit hurried to move Twilight into holiday prime time.
It looks like the vacuum caused by Harry moving to July is now filled. Twilight is an excellent replacement.
Reportedly, some people have compared the two fantasy series as the same audience appeal.
Twilight is the first film in Summit’s thriller romance franchise. Summit plans a wide release of Twilight in more 3,000 theaters.
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