Poe was the Beginning: Two of History’s Greats get the Action Movie Treatment

Hollywood’s interpretation of the Seige of New York

Seems like you’re not TRULY accomplished in history unless you’re a detective. While a lot of us here at Criminal Element can certainly empathize with this, I think that if you are one of the major cornerstones of modern science and the person largely responsible for the way we human beings understand the fundamentals of how our universe works, you should get a pass. In my opinion, the same holds true for our first president, the man who effectively established the image of what we think of as America. Hollywood would apparently disagree.

The Hollywood Reporter reported recently that Rob Cohen, the man behind Vin Diesel’s XXX and The Fast and the Furious as well as Brendan Fraser’s third Mummy movie, is co-writing and plans to direct a film based on Isaac Newton’s time as chief detective and head of the British Mint. There also are plans for a graphic novel/comic to accompany it.

At the same time, director Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan, The Wrestler) is currently shopping around an action movie called The General, which is based on the life of George Washington and described as “Un-Forgiven-like”

I just honestly don’t know what to say at this point.

Picture from Jason Heuser on Etsy