Tradecraft: More Ludlum News!

We truly live in a Golden Age. All through my middle school years, I tore through Robert Ludlum's million-page spy thrillers and wondered why there weren't movies of all of these books. And I desperately wanted those movies to exist. And now... they do! Or they will. Nearly twenty years later and sadly well after Ludlum's passing, Hollywood has finally discovered the potential of the late author's oeuvre. Today, his name is splashed across the front of the trades for the second day in a row!

Just a few months ago, Bourne producer Frank Marshall was saying that they planned to use Ludlum's The Parsifal Mosaic as the basis for a fourth Bourne film, having run out of actual Ludlum Bourne titles (but not plots, it should be noted, since the last two movies didn't follow the books at all). And I was a little torn about that, because while I liked the idea of The Parsifal Mosaic being filmed (it's a great book), I felt that it should be filmed on its own and not turned into a Bourne story. Well, now it appears that's exactly what's happening! (Although I had since come around on the idea, realizing how it could potentially be used to bring Franka Potente's Marie back from the dead...)

Both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter are reporting this morning that Universal is exploiting its overall deal with Captivate Entertainment (formerly Ludlum Entertainment; not sure when that changed) by fast-tracking a legitimate film adaptation of Parsifal with Brian Grazer's Imagine Entertainment on board to co-produce. Fantastic! Bring on all the other Ludlum titles!