I didn't mean to misunderstand, but Josh Lucas is not going to get his head cut off (and some FX prosthetics guy down the road is not going to have to create a severed Lucas head) for a movie about murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl , which will be based on the Bernard-Henri Levy book "Who Killed Daniel Pearl?" Lucas will play a guy investigating Pearl's killing. Kip Williams (The Door in the Floor) will direct for Beacon Pictures next fall, working from a script by Peter Landesman that uses a fictionalized Pearl character. (Beacon reportedly doesn't want to infringe on a film project based on a book by the journalist's widow, Marianne Pearl). Pic will shoot Morocco, Dubai, India, Libya and Tunisia.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on May 8, 2006 at 10:03 AM

comment #1

Mike Schaefer says ...

So there's a project in the pipeline based on Pearl's widows book? Then why do a "fictionalized" version too? Somebody did that with "Veronica Guerin" a few years back; the Cate Blanchett version played (& flopped) in theaters; a Joan Allen "fictionalized" version ended up on cable. And of course, there's the irony of Lucas also being involved with "Poseidon", which Warners greenlit despite a TV version they knew was coming ahead of theirs.

Posted by Mike Schaefer at May 8, 2006 11:00 AM

comment #2

Irv says ...

Lucas isn't playing Pearl. He's playing a journalist who goes to Pakistan to investigate Pearl's death, and discovers a broader conspiracy.

Posted by Irv at May 8, 2006 11:40 AM

comment #3

Daniel Zelter says ...

Irv: That sounds a lot like the plot to Cannibal Holocaust.

Posted by Daniel Zelter at May 8, 2006 2:01 PM

comment #4

Chris says ...

Re: . . . He's playing a journalist who goes to Pakistan to investigate Pearl's death, and discovers a broader conspiracy . . .

This sounds like a great movie. Because everyone knows that George Bush murdered Daniel Pearl, not Islamist terrorists. They should do one about the conspiracy behind the murder of Theo Van Gogh, or Robert Kennedy or all those people in the World Trade Center, who also were not killed by Islamist terrorists.

Posted by Chris at May 8, 2006 5:00 PM

comment #5