Danny Boyle is to direct ‘Methuselah’.
The ‘Yesterday’ filmmaker has reportedly agreed a deal with Warner Bros. to take the reins on the biblical epic, which will star Michael B. Jordan in the lead role of the man who lived to be almost 970 without showing physical signs of ageing.
Danny’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ and ‘127 Hours’ collaborator Simon Beaufoy is to rewrite the script, which was previously penned by Tony Gilroy from James Watkins’ treatment.
Michael’s Outlier Society are producing the film, along with Heyday’s David Heyman and Jeffrey Clifford.
The movie has been pitched as an "elevated genre" and will focus on the skills accumulated by the lead character throughout his existence and will be penned by Arash Amel and Zach Dean.
The project has been in development by Warner for years and in 2017 it was reported that director Jerry Bruckheimer would helm the project with Tom Cruise as the lead, while Will Smith has also previously been attached to the project.
Danny’s most recent film was ‘Yesterday’ but before that, he was hired as director for the latest James Bond movie, ‘No Time To Die’.
However, he left the project last August due to "creative differences" with producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, and later confirmed a script dispute was the reason.
He said: "I learned quite a lot about myself working with Bond. I work in partnership with writers and I am not prepared to break it up.
"We were working very, very well, but they didn’t want to go down that route with us.
"So we decided to part company."
The director – who was replaced at the helm by Cary Fukunaga – was working on the Bond script with his writing collaborator John Hodge and while that screenplay was ditched, the filmmaker firmly believes their movie would’ve been "really good".
He said: "What John [Hodge] and I were doing, I thought, was really good. It wasn’t finished, but it could have been really good."
Danny Boyle to direct Methuselah
