Caffeinated Clint
Last time we heard Hollywood was tinkering with bringing the 2001 book “Carter Beat the Devil” to the big screen, it was within the confines of a trade article suggesting it’d be getting the Tom Cruise treatment.
All these years later, the project – based on a book that sees – is showing signs of life again.
Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” filmmakers who crossed over to live-action fodder with this year’s smash “21 Jump Street” film, have inked a deal that’ll see them write and direct said project, says THR.
“Devil”, written by Glen David Gold, is set in the 1920’s and tells of “Charles Carter — a.k.a. Carter the Great — a young master performer whose skill as an illusionist exceeds even that of the great Houdini. Fueled by a passion for magic that grew out of desperation and loneliness, Carter has become a legend in his own time. His thrilling act involves outrageous stunts carried out on elaborate sets before the most demanding audiences. But the most outrageous stunt of all stars none other than President Warren Harding and ends up nearly costing Carter the reputation he worked so hard to create. Filled with historical references that evoke the excesses and enthusiasm of postwar, pre-Depression America, Carter Beats the Devil is the complex and illuminating story of one man’s journey through a magical — and sometimes dangerous — world, where illusion is everything, and everything is illusory.”
“Devil” would see Lord and Miller stay on the Warner Bros payroll; they’re currently working on a CGI Lego movie for the studio.
