Marc Guggenheim, comic-book writer and TV showrunner on the likes of Flash Forward and Eli Stone, is set to transfer over to film with two big upcoming films: Leonardo Da Vinci and the Soldiers of Forever and** Thieves of Baghdad**.
The Da Vinci project, which was announced a couple of weeks back, recasts the insanely gifted inventor (whose ahead-of-his-time inventions are surely the best ever evidence that people from the future can travel back in time) as a member of a secret society on a supernatural mission against demons. Apparently it's set to cross National Treasure, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Clash of the Titans, so there'll be a Da Vinci Code (if you will) to solve, but lots of wrath-of-god stuff too.
Meanwhile, the Thieves story sees Sinbad, Ali Baba and any other figure from the Arabian Nights / Middle Eastern folk tales with any degree of name recognition team up to pull off the heist of their careers. That, we're guessing, will be pitched as Prince of Persia meets Aladdin meets Ocean's Eleven.
But we shouldn't scoff: Guggenheim has had a very promising TV and comics career to date, and has already worked on the upcoming Green Lantern movie as well as a Michael Chiklis-starring TV pilot about a family with superpowers. If anyone can make these wonderfully batshit-insane premises work, it might be him.