Howard Thrilled By 'Changeling'

Next up for Opie is...

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Thursday, June 29th 2006 at 2:23 AM

Variety is reporting that Ron Howard has his eye on J. Michael Straczynski's The Changeling for his next directorial outing for Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment.

The thriller is billed as based on actual events, is about a mother who prays for the return of her kidnapped son. When her prayers are answered, however, she begins to suspect the boy who comes back is not her child.

Not sure who writer J. Michael Straczynski is? Well join the club, but Variety tells us that he is a leading comicbook writer with an exclusive deal with Marvel and several Spider-Man titles under his belt. He also created TV skein "Babylon 5."

The idea that Howard will actually direct this movie is a crapshoot as he is attached to a bazillion films including the Iraq war drama Last Man Home, Winnie Holzman's The Look of Real, a fiml that may star his daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard, about women working in the garment industry, The Serpent and the Eagle for Paramount about the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs, and The Power of Duff at Universal, which follows a local news anchor whose newscast prayers begin to be answered.

So what will he be doing next? Who the hell knows, but considering The Da Vinci Code has now grossed over $700 million worldwide I am sure studios are chomping at the bit to get another Howard film in the works.