Paramount Pictures has started piecing together their plans for an Evel Knievel biopic by pulling William Monahan (The Departed) to write the script, according to Deadline.
The film is based on the book On the Road with Evel Knievel that followed the famous stuntman on tour. The book is most famous for pissing off Knievel to the point where he attacked the author with a baseball bat. It’s unclear whether this will be a straight adaptation of the book or if it will also include the drama that followed its release.
With Monahan writing the script and Terence Winter (TV’s Boardwalk Empire) producing, there are rumors that Paramount is working to get Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street) to direct. Scorsese was recently announced as the director for Sinatra, the biopic about the iconic singer as well as the adaptation of the novel, The Devil in the White City.
Knievel has been a hot topic for films lately. The documentary Being Evel released last summer while Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler) was recently attached to direct the biopic Evel Knievel with Channing Tatum (Gambit) starring. That project has been put on hold since he took on an untitled project starring Jennifer Lawrence (Joy).
We’ll have more on Evel Knievel on the Road as it develops, including who ends up taking the director’s chair.
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