With the Harry Potter series of films coming to a close, Warner Bros. is on the hunt for the next multi-billion dollar franchise to keep the cash rolling in. Sherlock Holmes is the closest thing they've got on the books right now, as well as another Guy Ritchie period epic based around the story of King Arthur. Eager to keep cranking out action-adevnture films, Warner Bros. has just picked up a script for Leonardo Da Vinci and the Soldiers of Forever.

The pitch has Da Vinci as a practicing member of a secret society (presumably the Illuminati) which unwittingly starts an adventure involving demons, secret codes, hidden fortresses, and lost civilizations. Sound familiar? It should since it's just about the exact story of National Treasure. The announcement at THR doesn't give any details on who will be in the film or behind the lens, but all signs point to Jon Turteltaub, and if you were to follow the treasure map even further you'll find an eager Nic Cage (frequent Team Turteltaub member) poised to star.

Undoubtedly, if this film does well, and with the right people behind it there's no doubt that it will, it's sure to spawn several "and the" sequels much in the same vein as Indiana Jones or the surprisingly competent made-for-TV Librarian series (which drops the "and the" in lieu of a colon, but let's be honest, it's the same thing.)

The idea of Da Vinci being a member of a secret society was recently explored in the video game Assassins Creed 2, where the painter, inventor, and architect provides the game's hero, Ezio, with gadgets and gizmos to help him take down his targets. Hopefully this film will be half as exciting as that game was. We'll let you know who WB puts at the pen as soon as that information gets to us.