There's really no limit to the amount of movies that already exist about con artists or men of otherwise ill repute who stop their ways when they meet the right woman, but that doesn't mean we'll stop watching this kind of movie over and over again. The latest actor to take a crack at it will apparently be Channing Tatum, who Deadline reports will be producing and starring in an adaptation of The Contortionist's Handbook, the novel by Craig Clevenger.
Stop me if you've heard this before: Tatum stars as a forger who's constantly switching identities to avoid being caught, but then he falls for "a beautiful woman with her own dark secret." The description of the book from Publisher's Weekly (via Amazon) makes it sound a lot darker, with the main character constantly in and out of hospitals thanks to a drug problem and frequent migraines. There's no guarantee that they'll be softening things for the movie version, but, well, you can take a look at Hollywood history and draw your own conclusions.
Contortionist's Handbook is only the latest dramatic project Tatum has taken on as he expands his career beyond the sensitive meathead roles that made him famous; he's playing a tattooed and pierced guy in the Ron Howard comedy The Dilemma, a junkie in What's Left Of Us and, OK, will continue showing off his muscles in the sci-fi project Ion and a G.I. Joe sequel. You've got to have some admiration, though, for an actor who could be coasting by on his looks but constantly seeks out new things, especially when he shoulders producing duties to make it happen. I promise I'm not biased because I like seeing him shirtless. OK, maybe just a little.
