James Marsh’s Oscar-winning 2008 documentary Man On Wire captured the popular imagination (and spawned many an entry in Empire’s Poster Mash-Ups feature), so it makes sense someone would look to turn the story of high wire walker Philippe Petit into a movie. That someone, according to Twitch, is Richard Zemeckis, who has had his eye on the story for a while and has been talking to Joseph Gordon-Levitt about starring in To Reach The Clouds, drawn from Petit’s 2002 memoir.
It’s not tough to see why Zemeckis or Gordon-Levitt might be interested in Pettit: a showman and endless innovator whose notorious 1974 stroll between the recently completed World Trade Centre towers was but the tip of the iceberg when it came to his exploits.
Of course, it’s not the only project the Flight director has sitting in his waiting room. He’s attached to several projects including Charlie Kaufman’s adaptation of Patrick Ness’** Chaos Walking**, toy rabbit tale The Miraculous Journey Of Edward Tulane, documentary-spawned title Marwencol, and various others, including, teasingly, the long-talked about **Roger Rabbit **sequel. Reaching out to Gordon-Levitt appears to indicate that Clouds could be moving into prime position. As for JGL, he’ll next be seen in Sin City: A Dame To Kill For and is producing a film based on Neil Gaiman’s Sandman stories.