Irish filmmaker Kealan O’Rourke will write and direct ‘The Houdini Box’ for 20th Century Fox, it has been announced.
The film will be an adaptation of American author Brian Selznick's young adult novel of the same name, which was originally published in 1991. The book is centred around aspiring magician Victor, who, after many attempts at Houdini’s tricks, finally meets his hero who leaves him a mysterious locked box.
Selznick, from New Jersey, is also the writer behind the 2007 novel ‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’, which Martin Scorsese adapted for the screen in 2011, and which won five Oscars.
‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ producer Peter Chernin and ‘Country Strong’ producer Jenno Topping will produce ‘The Houdini Box’ for Chernin Entertainment, while ‘Winter’s Tale’ executive producer Kerry Foster will oversee the project.
O’Rourke, well-known in Ireland for his IFTA-winning short animation ‘The Boy In the Bubble’, is currently working on a feature film length version of the story. According to Variety, the National Film School graduate is also attached to write and direct an animated adaptation of the novel ‘Bolivar’ for Warner Brothers.
