Robert Ludlum: The Hottest Writer in Hollywood!
Robert Ludlum passed away eight years ago. But, in Hollywood, he’s alive and kicking! In fact, he’s scorching hot! The success of the Bourne franchise, based on Ludlum novels, has launched a feeding frenzy on the late-author’s literary output.
Ron Howard is set to direct Ludlum’s The Parsifal Mosaic, MGM has snagged David Cronenberg for The Matarese Circle with Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington attached. And the follow-up novel The Matarese Countdown is alreadly in development; so it will be ready to go if the first one proves successful. Paramount is still developing The Chancellor Manuscript, and The Sigma Protocol is inching toward production with Elite Squad director Jose Padilha helming.
Even literary works not by Ludlum are being invested with the Bourne mojo. Spielberg’s producing a version of Matt Helm which is being describe as “in the vein of the Bourne series.”
And with another 16 books in the Ludlum canon, and a bunch of co-authored works, expect this run on everything Ludlum to continue.
August 1, 2009 at 6:32 pm
I think that’s not entirely correct. To my knowledge it’s Matarese Circle that Denzel Washington was (or is?) attached to. Also, it seems that David Cronenberg is quite a bit disenchanted with that project, some sources say because Tom Cruise (who was also attached to the project at one point) tried to gain total control of the scriptwriting. If that’s true it’s definitely a dumb move on Cruise’s side.
August 1, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Thx, we’ve edited that paragraph so it’s clearer.