Marc Forster Summons The War Magician

By Matt Holmes / February 2, 2012

Updated: And as quickly as that Variety say Forster is no longer attached to the project. He is off the film as quickly as that;

Helmer Marc Forster is no longer attached to World War II drama "The War Magician." The project, set up at Lonetree Entertainment, is based on David Fisher's best-selling book and tells the story of real-life British magician Jasper Maskelyne, who adapted the core principles of stage magic to World War II. Forster had been eying the project but is no longer involved, his reps confirmed Thursday.

Previously eyed as a starring vehicle for Tom Cruise and later a potential project for director Peter Weir, Variety reports that Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace, Machine Gun Preacher) is the latest who has plans to helm The War Magician, a fascinating World War II saga of illusion. The film is based on the best-selling non-fiction book by David Fisher and chronicles British magician Jasper Maskelyne, who stunned onlookers during the Second World War when he incredibly hid the Suez Canal, the port of Alexandria Harbor and even fooled Rommel into believing a phantom army existed. These elaborate 'large-scale ruses, deception, and camouflage' (as Wiki put it) worked as cover for allied espionage missions and it sounds like material that would make for an interesting film. As we've said Tom Cruise certainly thought so when he bought the book for Paramount but in the end it's ended up at Lonetree Entertainment, with Lonetree partners Tony Eldridge and Colleen Camp producing. No word on whose script (if they have one) Forster is working on but Peter Buchman (Che, Jurassic Park III) had turned one in a few years back that could be resurrected. Forster has just completed filming the zombie warfare blockbuster World War Z that opens at the end of the year. I wonder if he makes the call to Tom Cruise to see if he is still interested in this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pebOqjm1W5A&feature=player_embedded