Variety says that Warner Bros. Pictures is developing a Marco Polo feature to be directed by Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend).
The studio bought a pitch from the writing team of Adam Cooper and Bill Collage and has set up the project with Erwin Stoff at 3 Arts Entertainment. Cooper and Collage will pen the script.
The project will be a fantasy-adventure rather than a biopic. “We see this as something that takes place in the Orient of our imagination amid the cultural clash of the East and the West,” Cooper told the trade.
Marco Polo was a Venice Merchant who learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, traveled through Asia and met Kublai Khan. In 1269, they returned to Venice to meet Marco for the first time. The three of them embarked on an epic journey to Asia, returning after 24 years to find Venice at war with Genoa; Marco was imprisoned, and dictated his stories to a cellmate. He was released in 1299, became a wealthy merchant, married and had 3 children.
