Newcomer Michael Arndt has been tapped to adapt Glen David Gold's novel "Carter Beats the Devil" for Paramount Pictures and filmmaker Robert Towne, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
Published in September by Hyperion Press, the book is set in 1920s America and follows Charles Carter, aka Carter the Great, a brilliant stage magician known for outrageous stunts carried out on elaborate sets. He runs into major problems -- and the Secret Service -- when he puts on the most outrageous stunt of all, using President Harding.
Towne will either direct or produce.