While vampires are immortal, the “Twilight” books are not, and it won’t be too long before Summit needs a replacement for Edward and Bella. It might be none other than legendary magician Harry Houdini. According to The Hollywood Reporter,Summit has optioned William Kalush and Larry Sloman’s controversial biography “The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America’s First Superhero” with an eye to adapting it not as a biopic, but an action movie.
The studio is planning to rewrite Houdini as a character who is part Indiana Jones and part Sherlock Holmes, and exciting enough to launch his own franchise, says the report.
Kalush and Sloman’s book should provide them with enough material for a thriller or two. Their biography is notorious for its claims that Houdini was a British spy, was invited to be an adviser to Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, and may have been murdered by all those phony spiritualists he debunked throughout his career. As if the book wasn’t sensational enough, the two authors staged a “family” press conference announcing they would be exhuming Houdini’s body to examine it for evidence of foul play. When the Houdini family denied all knowledge, it was revealed to be nothing but a publicity stunt for the book.
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Houdini was such a badass. I’ve said it befoer and will say it again, I don’t even think he is really dead. He’s just lying in wait. Houdini was so awesome that you could lock him in a fricking barrel and you know what he’d do? He’d get out of it and produce international top secret info from Russia AT THE SAME TIME. You’d think “ha, he’s all chained up, he is so screwed” but no. He’d get out of chains and boxes and water and EVERYTHING.
wow, he’s got sexy powerful looking legs. PWHOAR!
wow – is that houdini – he looks like a ’saw’ trap! – i’m reading twilight at the moment – yes what will there be when those have been read – the houdini book sounds great.
I’m slightly aroused by that photo. Is that wrong?
The only biographical knowledge I remember hearing about Houdini was that he claimed to be able to take any punch in the stomach the public were prepared to throw at him.
Unfortunately a student took him up on the challenge when he wasn’t mentally prepared and gave him a fatal winding. Does anyone know if that’s an urban myth or not?
He died in a hospital bed of appendicits, which was probably exacerbated by getting a couple of blows to the stomach in the days preceding his death. There’s a confusion about him dying by being winded before performing the Chinese Water Torture escape, and drowning in the process. This was the Hollywood ending created for the Tony Curtis movie and never happened.
The Kalush and Sloman theory hinges in part on a mysterious medicinal cocktail that Houdini was given, some dodginess to the student that punched him in the stomach, and another incident where a stranger walked into a bar where Houdini was drinking, punched him in the stomach and left. Houdini had received death threats from mediums, and within Doyle’s circle there were hints too that Houdini was running out of time.
What does come across is the seeming deathwish that Houdini had in the last twelve months of his life. Hindsight’s 20/20 but you do read that section of the book and just will the man to get some proper rest, something he was incapable of doing.
You’re all horrendous for finding that picture hot, or comparing it to Saw. FYI, I am pretty sure Houdini could take on every single character in the Twilight books all at once and win.
SGC – I’ll take a cold shower then and think about cricket
Reading Twilight has the same effect. Just saying.
I’m saving reading Twilight for after I’m married and settled down, there’s no rush
Marry Houdini. He’s totally hardcore.
SGC – He’s also very dead. I’m really not into that, it’s nowhere near as romantic as they pretend it is in “Twilight”
Houdini is far too badass to be dead. He’s just waiting. I am standing by this statement, I fully expect to see him rise when all spiritualists are dead (he’s pretending to be properly dead just to piss them off).
I saw an movie the other day (forgot the title ofcourse) which was about houdini. Thank god not an action movie.