Oscar-winning filmmaker Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump) will be teaming with Tom Rothman’s TriStar Productions, who are in the process of acquiring the rights to adapt To Reach the Clouds, the working title for the story of French high-wire artist Philippe Petit, who christened the newly-built World Trade Center back on August 7, 1974 by tight-rope walking in between the two towers on a taut wire cable.
Petit’s amazing story was brought to the screen in 2008 by filmmaker James Marsh and his Oscar-winning documentary Man on Wire. Zemeckis has co-written a script with Christopher Browne based on Petit’s memoirs with plans to possibly make it his next film as a director.
Rothman and Zemeckis plan on continuing their ambitious use of the latest 3D filmmaking technology to recreate Petit’s amazing achievement, Rothman having gotten the idea after having seen Alfonso Cuaron’s Oscar-nominated Gravity.
Having previously worked with Zemeckis on Cast Away and What Lies Beneath during his tenure at 20th Century Fox, the studio exec. was already aware that Zemeckis was interested in doing a movie about Petit with his ImageMovers partners, Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey, according to Deadline.
Zemeckis even has as an actor in the mind to play Petit–none other than Joseph Gordon-Levitt–and they’re moving quickly on this one with hopes to start shooting sometime during the spring or summer. (Although Gordon-Levitt is not confirmed, nor has a deal been made, so they could end up making the movie with a different actor.)
The film will be produced by Zemeckis, Starkey and Rapke with Cherylanne Martin as line and exec. producer and ImageMovers’ Jackie Levine also involved.
