‘Mandrake the Magician’ has been one of those projects that’s been in play for a long time and seen many false starts and backslides.
Today comes the stealth announcement that the project is once again showing signs of life.
We’ve learned that Mimi Leder (‘The Peacemaker’, ‘Deep Impact’) is now on board to direct the movie, which will star Hayden Crhistensen (‘Star Wars’) and Djimon Hounsou (‘Push’) as Mandrake and Lothar respectively.
Although the movie is based on Lee Falk’s classic comic strip, the fleet of screenwriters on the project (including Josh Oppenheimer, Thomas Dean Donnelly, JV Hart, Ian Jeffers and Kevin Bernhardt) have tweaked and modernized the concept considerably.
Here’s the description of the film:
“Jackson Mandrake lives life on the edge. Working as an underground magician and escapologist, his act has grown increasingly dangerous. Following a daring escape from an SUV that has been dropped out of an aeroplane at the Burning Man Festival, he is coerced by the CIA into breaking a deep-cover agent named Xi Shing Lung out of a maximum security jail. Hypnosis, contortion, distraction and technical wizardry all come into play as Mandrake breaks the agent out from the inside within a 24-hour deadline.
“But back on the outside, Mandrake learns that it was all a set-up. Xi is a CIA agent gone bad. He offers Mandrake the chance to join his crime ring. When Mandrake refuses, he’s a marked man. He must escape his would-be-killers and also the real CIA who accuse him of being in league with Xi. His quest to clear his name leads him into all sorts of dangers, which he must overcome with daredevil escapes that require all his conjuring skills. And along the way, Mandrake is forced to confront his past and the girl he left behind… ”
The film will be produced by China’s Tiger8 Production along with Omega Productions, Inc. Source
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