Mandrake headed to the big screen with Christensen & Hounsou

Comingsoon.Net reports that a movie based on Mandrake the Magician is set to go with Mimi Leder directing and Darth Wooder and Djimon Hounsou starring.

Mimi Leder (Deep Impact, The Peacemaker) will directed the film, written by Josh Oppenheimer and Thomas Dean Donnelly, JV Hart, and Ian Jeffers. The film is based on an original story by Kevin Bernhardt.
In the film, Jackson Mandrake lives life on the edge. Working as an underground magician and escapologist, his act has grown increasingly dangerous. Following a daring escape from an SUV that has been dropped out of an plane at the Burning Man Festival, he is coerced by the CIA into breaking a deep-cover agent named Xi Shing Lung out of a maximum security jail. Hypnosis, contortion, distraction and technical wizardry all come into play as Mandrake breaks the agent out from the inside within a 24-hour deadline.

But back on the outside, Mandrake learns that it was all a set-up. Xi is a CIA agent gone bad. He offers Mandrake the chance to join his crime ring. When Mandrake refuses, he's a marked man. He must escape his would-be-killers and also the real CIA who accuse him of being in league with Xi. His quest to clear his name leads him into all sorts of dangers, which he must overcome with daredevil escapes that require all his conjuring skills. And along the way, Mandrake is forced to confront his past and the girl he left behind...

My only real exposure to the character is via the old 'Flash Gordon and The Defenders of the Earth' cartoon so for me this is just a straight up action adventure film. Leder is a solid director who has won acclaim at festivals for her latest effort 'The Hurt Locker' and was the director of the quality Clooney/Kidman political espionage thriller 'The Peacemaker'.

I think the story sounds great and really lends itself to some exciting action set pieces, but with Hayden Christensen's wooden presence I'll hold my anticipation, Ive got nothing against the guy but at times he is a charisma black hole.