Beaks here...

Maybe it's because INGLORIOUS BASTARDS is finally (hopefully) getting made, but when I saw the headline "Tobey Maguire to star in CRUSADERS" at Variety, my first thought was that Paul Verhoeven's presumed-dead epic about them wild, Jerusalem-sacking antics of the Middle Ages had suddenly been resurrected as a star vehicle for Peter Parker. Alas, no.

Instead, we're getting Gary Ross's THE CRUSADERS, an historical drama about the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topka decision (which paved the way for school desegregation in the U.S.). It's territory that's been previously covered by a very earnest television movie (George Stevens Jr.'s SEPARATE BUT EQUAL), but, as far as I can remember, never in a theatrically released film - at least, not directly. Maguire, who's only attached at the moment, would star as Jack Greenberg, a Columbia Law School grad who worked on the case with soon-to-be Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall. There's no one attached to play Marshall yet, but you can bet that competition will pick up now that Maguire's on board (Sidney Poitier played the legendary figure in the aforementioned TV movie, so no pressure or anything).

Gary Ross is one of the more thoughtful studio filmmakers out there, so this fairly important project couldn't be in better hands (i.e. I don't think we're getting another GHOSTS OF MISSISSIPPI). If there's a way to tell this story without employing the usual prestige picture cliches, he should be able to pull it off.

Ross will be working from a screenplay by Danny Strong, who just earned an Emmy nomination for his RECOUNT script. THE CRUSADERS is set up at Universal.