Johnny Depp is said to be in talks to play illusionist Harry Houdini in an upcoming film.

The film, by Lionsgate and Summit, will be called The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero and will be directed by Dean Parisot (RED 2).

The Hollywood Reporter claims that the story will show Houdini as more than just an escape artist. He will be portrayed as an investigator of the occult world, with the film taking on an Indiana Jones style.

Depp is currently scheduled to work on two sequels with Disney. He will revisit his character of Jack Sparrow for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, and is also set to film Alice Through the Looking Glass - the sequel to Alice in Wonderland.

Lionsgate is hoping to start filming the biopic at the end of 2014, which would delay production of the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean until 2015.

It was recently announced that Benedict Cumberbatch and Parks and Recreation's Adam Scott are joining the cast of Depp's upcoming drama Black Mass.

The film will feature Depp as infamous mobster Whitey Bulger in a dramatisation of the Irish mafia's relationship with the FBI in Boston.