I recently acquired this item on eBay:
DESCRIPTION
Movie script for “Houdini” starring Tom Cruise. Due to production issues, this film wasn’t released in 1998 as planned. After a change in directors, it was slotted to be released in 2000. This didn’t happen either. Here is your chance to read the script for a movie that never happened.
Per our friend, John Cox at WildAboutHoudini.com:
The veteran scribes [Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson] who had tackled Nixon for Oliver Stone in 1995, focused their story on Houdini’s famous confrontation with the medium Mina “Margery” Crandon. The thrilleresque script blended fact with fiction and offered some dramatic recreations of not only the Margery sittings, but also the Water Torture Cell, Buried Alive, and the Russia Transport Prison Van escape. The movie opened with a dramatic depiction of Houdini’s famous sea monster challenge.
For more details on how this script came about, check out the following post at WildAboutHarry:
- Ray Stark’s 35 year Houdini conundrum [includes scene for Sea Monster Challenge escape]
Future posts will look at the rest of the escapes planned for the movie:
- Russia Transport Prison Van
- Water Torture Cell
- Berlin Bridge Jump
- Buried Alive