Despite a lot of early hype, nobody seemed all that excited about Neil Burger’s The Illusionist after seeing it. Nobody except Universal Pictures that is. They want more Burger in their life, and they’ve bought a pitch for his next movie.

Variety reports that the untitled film will be a contemporary drama set in New York. It takes place after a terrorist threat causes a police crackdown so fierce that crime is brought to a complete standstill. In order to get back to the business of breaking the law, the city’s criminal element decides to pool its resources and hunt down the terrorists themselves. In doing so, they start to re-examine the morality of their place in society.

Neil Burger will direct and co-write it with Dirk Winttenborn. Though they don’t have a script yet, they claim they’ve already done a lot of research into the way modern criminal organizations work in New York. I guess they’re pitching it as realistic.

Done up as a crime movie in the vein of Pulp Fiction or Joe Carnahan’s impending Smokin’ Aces maybe this could be fun. Somehow I doubt that’s what Burger is going for. It sounds like he’s taking this rather far fetched concept seriously, and taking it that direction might make it hard for anyone to buy into it. I’m already having trouble.