Edward Norton and Brett Ratner to Develop AMERICAN HIPPOPOTAMUS
Brett Ratner has acquired the rights to a very interesting book written by Jon Mooallem called American Hippopotamus. He will develop it into a feature film with Edward Norton set to produce. It's not confirmed, but there's a good chance that Ratner could direct Norton in the film. They previously worked together on the Hannibal Lector movie Red Dragon. This is a crazy sounding true story. Here's a description of it from Deadline:
"Responding to a meat shortage in the U.S. in 1910, two bitter enemies joined forces to try and import hippopotamuses to the swamps of Louisiana and convince Americans to eat them. Even though Theodore Roosevelt and The New York Times endorsed the plan, the fact that you don’t find hippo on the menu shows how well their campaign fared. Key to the movie is the rivalry of the hippo duo, both of whom were spies. Frederick Russell Burnham was a frontiersman and freelance adventurer whose exploits were the inspiration for the Boy Scouts, and he teamed with Fritz Duquesne, aka the Black Panther, a virtuoso con man and cynical saboteur who believed only in his own glorification and revenge. Burnham and Duquesne only recently had been under orders to assassinate each other, and they would return to being bitter enemies. But they took a break to try and get American hungry for hippos."
That story seems so ridiculous on so many levels. You can't make this stuff up. It's sure going to make for a fascinating flick!