‘Voices From The Dead’ Teams Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle

According to The Hollywood Reporter, J. Michael Straczynski, writer of the excellent Changeling and dozens of comic books (as well as creating cult TV series Babylon 5) has just sold his latest script, Voices From The Dead, to DreamWorks. Now we don’t report every time a script sells here at MovieBuzzers, but this particular one grabbed my interest: the story teams real-life friends Harry Houdini (AKA the most famous magician who ever lived) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (AKA creator of Sherlock Holmes and an impressive amateur sleuth himself) to solve a supernatural mystery in 1920s New York City. While that sounds like the potential to be an awesome Guy Ritchie Sherlock Homes style film, there’s potential for controversy as the film goes into production. What’s the potential problem? You can find out after the jump!

The potential issue is that the novels The Arcanum by Thomas Wheeler , Nevermore by William Hjortsberg, and the graphic novels Necronauts and Edge of the Unknown have already teamed Houdini and Doyle in some form or fashion against supernatural threats, so unless DreamWorks is careful about the film’s production they may end up with a lawsuit or two on their hands. Despite that, the curious friendship between the two men (Doyle was a firm believer in the paranormal and Houdini spent his later career debunking spiritualists) has certainly drummed up enough interest so far, so there’s no reason the film couldn’t be a success.

Who would you like to see Houdini and Doyle take on? Let us know in your comments below!