Barry Sonnenfeld to direct a film about fake psychics (as opposed to the other kind)

By Matt Wayt | March 16, 2015 | 8:07pm

Aux Features Film

Barry Sonnenfeld has signed on to direct a film based on James Randi’s Project Alpha, which was depicted in the 2014 documentary An Honest Liar. Randi is a former magician who has dedicated the past few decades to debunking pseudoscientific and paranormal claims. With Project Alpha, he enlisted two fake psychics and fooled researchers into thinking they could do things with their minds like blow fuses and bend spoons, even though they looked nothing like Keanu Reeves.

Although the project was already explored in a very recent documentary, Sonnenfeld knows the potential for a breezy 90-minute film when he sees one, saying, “Not only did I love An Honest Liar, but I knew there was an excellent narrative film to be made out of this story, with James Randi playing the ‘behind the curtain’ puppeteer.” There’s no word yet on when production will begin, but it’s likely next on the docket after Sonnenfeld successfully fools you into thinking that Kevin Spacey is a house cat.