Connery's Canon

Variety reports that Oscar-winner Sean Connery will star in Josiah's Canon. Brett Ratner (Red Dragon) is in talks to direct the long-in-development project for producer Adam Fields and 20th Century Fox.

While no official start date has been set yet the project will film sometime this fall in New York City and Europe. Phil Alden Robinson (The Sum of All Fears) rewrote Jeff King's original screenplay.

According to the trade paper, Josiah Cannon is a "dramatic heist story [that] concerns a Holocaust survivor (Connery) who leads the world's foremost team of bank robbers. The criminal mastermind sets his sights on an supposedly impenetrable bank in Switzerland, which holds special appeal: It purportedly houses money deposited by Jews before the Holocaust."

Josiah's Canon has been in development since 1996, at different times attracting the likes of Paul Newman, Warren Beatty, Michael Douglas, Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino.

Directors who have flirted with the pic reportedly include Brad Silberling, Ridley Scott, Tony Scott and Mimi Leder.