Paramount Wants Martin Scorsese To Direct An Evel Knievel Biopic

A biopic about legendary stuntman Evel Knievel, the American daredevil who became famous for his epic motorcycle jumps throughout the '70s and '80s, is already being eyed by Sony Pictures with Channing Tatum in talks to play Knievel. Last we heard, Darren Aronofsky was in talks to direct that movie, and now Hollywood is doing that thing they often do in which two movies that cover extremely similar subject matter are put in development at the same time: Deadline reports that Paramount wants its own biopic, and they'd like Martin Scorsese to direct it.

William Monahan has been hired to write the screenplay, which will be based on Sheldon Saltman's book Evel Knievel On Tour, which — get this — due to its unflattering depiction of Knievel, infuriated the stuntman so much that he assaulted the author with a baseball bat, breaking the author's arm in the process. (His sponsorships bailed on him after that, leading him to eventually file for bankruptcy and spend some time in jail for the assault.) Boardwalk Empire showrunner Terence Winter is producing, and the hope is to lure Scorsese in to collaborate with these guys again (Monahan wrote The Departed, while Winter wrote The Wolf of Wall Street and is teaming with Scorsese for Vinyl after their successful run on Boardwalk).

Scorsese has a great relationship with Paramount, having worked with the studio on every film release of his since 2008's Shine a Light. Word is that it's still too early for the director to make a decision about directing this one, but the lure of working with familiar collaborators at his home studio may be too good to pass up. The next Scorsese film we'll see is the Liam Neeson-starrer Silence, but his next project is still up in the air. We'll keep you posted if he decides to jump on board.