Still enjoying the renaissance period of his career, Robert Downey Jr is being chased by every studio in Hollywood with eager beaver couriers turning up at his house bearing bundles of scripts every single day, hoping that he’ll slide his eyes over one and pronounce it worthy of his attention. And even though it doesn’t have a physical screenplay yet, Sony is crossing its corporate fingers he’ll do just that with its adaptation of Neil Strauss’ non-fiction tome Emergency! This Book Will Save Your Life.
Strauss’ book sounds like a blend between Louis Theroux-style documentaries and the weirdoes that Theroux often interviews (and in movie terms, it bears comparison to The Mosquito Coast). Worried about the state of the world, Strauss packed up his family and moved everyone to an isolated location offshore. He re-invented himself as a total survivalist, learning such skills as lock picking and how to pilot a plane.
But his new worldview brought him into conflict with the US government and also sent him into a paranoid haze, leading to meetings with odd cult leaders, rich gun nuts and a group of other people who eschewed their regular lives for isolation and defence.
**Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps **writer Allan Loeb is on board to write it specifically for Downey, so chances are he’ll wait to see the script before he makes any real decisions or adds it to the multitude of projects he’s considering.