When Steve McQueen died he left behind a family and a legacy; he also left behind an unfinished movie project locked away in a trunk. Undiscovered for some time after the iconic star’s death, Yucatan exists only as 1700 pages of notes (!) that McQueen put together for a heist movie in which he would star. McQueen’s son Chad has been trying to get Yucatan off the ground for some time – in 2007 it looked like McG might direct it – but now he’s partnered up with Downey Jr and his wife Susan, who have formed Team Downey productions.
Team Downey is ostensibly set up to get RDJ into the director’s chair, but they’re also putting together starring projects for the actor. It’s unclear who will take a crack at turning those thousand plus pages into a script, or whether this will be the movie that Downey directs; it’s definitely being developed with an eye towards him starring.
The story takes place in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, where a group of thieves try to get their hands on ancient buried treasure. I don’t know much else beyond that, although I’m sure McQueen completeists know the whole tale. I imagine that whatever comes of it will be quite different than any movie Steve McQueen could have imagined.
Yucatan is far off in Downey’s future. He’ll be starting Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity, take a break from that and do Sherlock Holmes 2, come back and finish the Cuaron movie and then… who knows. Could be Yucatan, could be something else.
via Deadline