Can Houdini escape from a Crystal Skull?

In-demand (don’t ask me why – Ed) scribe Jeff Nathanson (“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”) has been hired to write and direct the adaptation of William Kalush and Larry Sloman’s Harry Houdini biography “The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America’s First Superhero” for Summit Entertainment, says THR.

The book, published in 2006 by Atria Books, made waves at the time for insinuating that Houdini was a spy for Britain and was asked to be an adviser to Czar Nicholas II’s court in pre-revolutionary 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 theory that his death was caused by the spiritual movement as payback.

Apparently Summit are hoping to do something akin to the Robert Downey Jr starring “Sherlock Holmes” with the new “Houdini” –so why’d they hire Nathanson?