Ben Affleck to Star in Director Dan Trachtenberg’s HOUDINI Biopic

Dan Trachtenberg, the director of 10 Cloverfield Lane, is developing a Houdini biopic, and Ben Affleck has signed on to star in it. The film is said to be a “star vehicle” for the actor, but it’s not known for sure if Affleck is playing Houdini or another character.

The project was announced way back in 2016, and it’s based on William Kalush and Larry Sloman’s book The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America’s First Superhero.

The story delves into some interesting and cool details about Houdini’s life. It draws from millions of pages of research and “describes in vivid detail the passions that drove Houdini to perform ever-more-dangerous feats, his secret life as a spy, and a pernicious plot to subvert his legacy.”

The Secret Life of Houdini traces “the arc of the master magician’s life from desperate poverty to worldwide fame—his legacy later threatened by a group of fanatical Spiritualists led by esteemed British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.” One of the more interesting aspects involves the belief that he was a British spy, in cahoots with police organizations, and at one point was even asked to be an adviser to Czar Nicholas II's court in pre-revolutionary Russia. These are real theories about the magician, and this movie will elaborate on those stories. 

The studio's plan for the film is to make it an action-thriller in which Houdini will be portrayed as part Indiana Jones and part Sherlock Holmes. Here's the description of the book the film will be inspired by:

Using exclusive access to newly uncovered archives, Kalush and Sloman reveal the clandestine agreements in which the British and Americans recruited Houdini to be an active secret agent.

In exchange for his cooperation, the governments of these two countries facilitated his rise to the top of the world stage. The authors give thrilling accounts of his assignments, such as his participation in early aerial surveillance and his use of his own magic magazine to communicate espionage-related information.

After the war, Houdini embarked upon what became his most dangerous mission when he took on the Spiritualist movement. Convinced that Spiritualist mediums were frauds, he became obsessed with exposing them. But the Spiritualists were a powerful adversary. An organized network of fanatics, led by Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle, worked relentlessly to orchestrate a campaign that would silence Houdini forever.

This sounds like it’ll make for a great film! I’ve been fascinated with Houdini and his life for a long time, so I can’t wait to see how this movie turns out. This is a cool project for Trachtenberg, who was also recently set to direct a new Predator movie.

Source: THR