Walden Media had great success breaking into the epic fantasy film niche carved out by Lord of the Rings, and now they're gunning for the boy wizard genre currently owned by Harry Potter.

The Hollywood Reporter says Walden and director Mark Waters are planning an adventure movie about a 14-year-old who discovers he's the descendent of Harry Houdini. After discovering his heritage, he takes off on a journey to uncover Houdini's secrets and take over his carefully protected legacy.

You might remember Mark Waters as the director of the hit movie Mean Girls. He's also responsible for the Reese Witherspoon ghost movie Just Like Heaven. Both movies used premises that could have been instant disasters, but Waters surprised everyone by making them work. Maybe he can make the same magic with his new Houdini project.

Waters is currently working on another fantasy movie, the story of kids sucked into an alternate world called The Spiderwick Chronicles.