Four years after blowing up with 10 Cloverfield Lane, Dan Trachtenberg had yet to get started on a new film. Yet in the last few weeks he’s signed on to a new Predator film, and his long-developing Harry Houdini biopic now has one of the biggest stars in the world attached to lead it.
THR reports Ben Affleck will star as the legendary escape artist Harry Houdini in Trachtenberg’s film, based on William Kalush and Larry Sloman‘s book The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America’s First Superhero. Noah Oppenheim adapted the novel which explores Houdini’s need to attempt increasingly dangerous feats, but also claims he was an international spy, dabbled in the occult, and worked for the Secret Service.
This is a busy time for Affleck as he’s recently agreed to star in George Clooney’s adaptation of The Tender Bar. He’ll also reprise his Batman role in The Flash, and direct a movie on the making of Chinatown.
