Have you heard of Mandrake the Magician? You should have, because he controls your mind!

Jedi mind tricks don’t work on Randy Couture!

Mandrake is a comic strip first drawn in 1934 by Lee Falk. Over the years, Mandrake has fought aliens, mad scientists and common thugs using his fast hypnotic technique. This technique seems to be a lot like an ultra-effective Jedi mind trick mixed with Professor X from the X-Men; Mandrake waves his hand and can project psychic illusions to those under his spell.

Take that premise and give it an ultra-cool action-film veneer and you have the movie Mandrake, directed by Chuck Russel and slated for release later this year with Jonathan Rhys Meyers attached to play the conjurer.

Writes scooper ‘Webhead’:

Hey guys…just heard something interesting on our local radio station here in Columbus, OH concerning Mandrake. The station (QFM 96.3) had Randy Couture from UFC on and were talking to him about general UFC items when he said he was traveling to China in the next few weeks to start filming the movie Mandrake. He said he had quite a few scenes in the movie and that it was being billed as a cross between James Bond and Harry Houdini. He was pretty pumped about it. Didn’t know if you had heard this or not. Keep up the great work.

A cross between James Bond and Harry Houdini sounds cool, as long as this Mandrake doesn’t take on more than the title from it’s 1979 TV movie predecessor.

That films plot involves Mandrake and his assistant Lothar helping amusement-park owner who is being blackmailed by a madman who is killing the park’s customers until he gets his money.

More action and less Hardy Boys seems like the way to go.