The producer of “I, Robot,” “Catch Me If You Can” and “Not Another Not Another Movie” is getting ready to piss off a whole bunch of people by turning the life of Buddha into “‘Gladiator’ meets ‘Lawrence Of Arabia'” epic.
Curiously, the Dalai Lama is on board as a consultant producer, and “The Sting” screenwriter David S. Ward is penning the script based on Kyra Pahlen’s “The Warrior Prince.” In her novel, Buddha is married and has to defend his country and flies in the face of prevailing attitudes of the time. So, it’s basically “Rebel With A Religious Cause.” Ugh. How this will jive the Buddhist ethics of non-violence remains to be seen, but we’re sure Ward and Pahlen dance around that quite nicely.
The film currently has a $40 million budget and casting is underway. The only way we can be remotely interested in this is if they get Keanu Reeves to play Buddha again.
