Universal wants to be in the Burger business – not the considerably creepy meat-slinging king, but the director of THE ILLUSIONIST, one of the recent dueling movies about dueling magicians. But as THE PRESTIGE did not have the divine Jessica Biel (pictured here in all her healthy splendor), THE ILLUSIONIST is clearly the winner.
The studio has used their own legerdemain to trick Neil Burger into working on an as-yet-untitled pitch about the New York underworld. In the story, a terrorist threat has disrupted Manhattan organized crime, and the “businessmen” temporarily put aside their disputes and unite to find the terrorists themselves so they get back to various illegal enterprises. (They need some of these gangsters running CTU on 24 — they might get better results.)
The project may be Burger’s next film – he’s currently writing the script with Dirk Wittenborn (FIERCE PEOPLE). Meanwhile, Biel continues to be absurdly desirable.