Back in 2010, Robert Downey Jr. revealed that Team Downey, the production shingle he runs with his wife, Susan Downey, had plans to develop Yucatan, an action adventure tale with a fascinating Hollywood history. Today, Deadline reveals that Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Terry Rossio will be taking over scripting duties from Anthony Peckham (Sherlock Holmes).
Yucatan‘s origins lie in a 1,700 page treatment by the late Steve McQueen. McQueen was preparing Yucatan for himself to star in the 1960s, but the project never made it off the ground and was left nearly forgotten until it was uncovered by his family after the actor’s death. The story is said to follow a freelance deep sea diver who is hired to uncover lost Mayan treasure.
“To imbue a McQueen project with a sense of how he might have made it nowadays is a challenge and a thrill,” says Downey of the project. “Rossio is more than a great writer, he’s the perfect fit to embrace the existential nature of the project with the action, story and characters that drive ‘Yucatan.’”
Rossio, whose credits also include Pirates of the Caribbean and Mask of Zorro, was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on 2001’s Shrek.
Downey is currently in theaters in director David Dobkin’s The Judge. Next summer, he’ll reprise his role as Tony Stark in Joss Whedon’s much-anticipated Marvel Studios sequel, Avengers: Age of Ultron. He’ll then return for another go-around as Stark in Joe and Anthony Russo’s Captain America: Civil War, set to hit the big screen on May 1, 2016.
Yucatan will be produced by both Downeys, David Gambino and Dan Lin.
(Photo Credit: WENN.com)
