Universal cracks down on crime

Given the sleeper hit success of magical drama The Illusionist, it was only a matter of time before writer/director Neil Burger was snapped up by one of the big studios and offered some cash to make his next film.

And now he’s found the most likely possibility as Universal has opened its wallet to buy an untitled pitch that plays on America’s current top fear – terrorism.

Burger is planning to pen the script with Dirk Wittenborn, with the story following New York criminals who are responding to a total security crackdown after a terrorist threat. Annoyed that the altered situation is hurting their business, the crooks get organised and hunt down the terrorists hoping to put things back to normal – well, at least normal enough that they can earn a dishonest wage. But something happens to them while they’re on this unusual mission: they start to question their morals.

There’s no start date – Burger and Wittenborn haven’t even put pen to paper yet. But they have already spent time researching New York’s criminal element…