It’s CSI: Louvre! Okay, maybe not, but Miramax is invoking the ratings-crushing TV forensics franchise in talking up its latest film option.
Jonathan Harr’s The Lost Painting follows the real-life mission to locate The Taking Of The Christ, a missing masterpiece painted by Caravaggio. Clues led to the dirt-covered work being found in a house owned by Jesuit priests in Ireland. Sounds very Da Vinci codified to us, but apparently it’s all true; the painting finally went on display in Ireland's National Gallery to universal acclaim. Christopher Monger will write the script.
"We haven't seen a forensic, CSI-type of film set in the art world, and there are compelling characters like one in Ireland who dreamed of making one great discovery and was well into his career when this happened," Miramax’s Karen Putnam told Variety. Someone get Roger Daltry on the phone – he needs to write a Who song about art right now.