Wright Chronicles Houdini's "Secret Life"

"Atonement" and "Anna Karenina" filmmaker Joe Wright is reportedly in talks call action on "The Secret Life of Houdini" biopic says The Los Angeles Times.

An adaptation of William Kalush and Larry Sloman's 2006 biography of famed illusionist, Harry Houdini which posited that he acted as a spy for Britain and was asked to be an adviser to Czar Nicholas II in prerevolutionary Russia. The book also portrayed the master escape artist and magician as a debunker of con artists who pretended to be spiritualists, leading to the controversial theory that Houdini's death was caused by the spiritual movement as payback.

Noah Oppenheim wrote the script adaptation which turns the book into an action thriller tentpole ala Guy Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes".

"The Hunger Games" director Gary Ross was attached to this film for a bit but vacated to helm "Peter And The Starcatchers" instead.