Since his big comeback with Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr has been slowly rebuilding his cache and, with the help of producing partner (and missus), Susan Downey, he’s also been dabbling in taking more control over the projects he appears in. It would seem that he’s ready to take the next step, buying up half of Los Angeles, renaming it Downeywood and turning it into a de facto studio. Sorry, no, that should read "launched a production company"*. Oh, and the first project the fledgling Team Downey will tackle is Yucatan, based on an old, abandoned Steve McQueen project.
Yes, in the middle of a crushingly dull story about how Team Downey have hired their first executive comes word from Deadline that the company will take over development of the film, which Warner Bros has been trying to crack for years.
Nearly 1,700 pages of notes and storyboards were discovered in a trunk that had nestled for ages in McQueen’s vault after his death. Sometime around 2005, son Chad McQueen and Godson Lance Sloane stumbled upon the documents and did a deal with the studio to get the treasure hunt/heist film set up there.
While several script drafts were produced, no one has quite been able to come up with a workable version yet, but McG and David Heyman have been involved, at least in the past.
Now, the Downeys are working with Sherlock Holmes producer Dan Lin to get the film and have already started considering possible stars, including a Mr R. Downey Jr. Surprise! The question remains whether they can actually make it work this time…
*Although we're totally headed to Downeywood on our next holiday.