Following its success with the Robert Downey Jr./Jude Law "Sherlock Holmes," Warner Bros. has been frantically watching The History Channel for the next kinda gay cultural icon who could be refashioned into an action hero. Prepare yourself for Warners' "Leonardo da Vinci and the Soldiers of Forever." Yes, the semi-reliable "Hollywood Reporter" announces that the studio bit on a pitch from "Hitman" producer Adrian Askarieh: "The project re-imagines Da Vinci as a member of a secret society who falls headlong into a supernatural adventure that pits the man against Biblical demons in a story involving secret codes, lost civilizations, hidden fortresses and fallen angels. Think 'National Treasure' and 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' by way of 'Clash of the Titans.'" In my mind, it's "The da Vinci Code," meets "Legion," meets "Wild Wild West." With that special "Hitman" feeling. I'm seeing lots of catapults, conical wooden tanks and paratroopers wearing jointed canvas covered bat wings. If they don't get the Mona Lisa woman into the plot as a sultry sidekick, they're not even trying. Right now anyone with a treatment involving William Shakespeare as a vampire slayer is sitting on a pile of gold. Or how about a hot, young Eleanor Roosevelt as a kickass spy? Somebody call Hilary Swank's agent.
