Jesse Eisenberg has taken the lead role in Louis Leterrier’s Now You See Me.  As we reported in February, Edward Ricourt and Boaz Yakin’s spec script is about “a crack FBI squad in a game of cat-and-mouse against a super team of the world’s greatest illusionists, who pull off a series of daring bank heists during their performances and showers the profits on to their audiences.”  Eisenberg will lead the magicians.  Variety also reports that Jake Gyllenhaal has been offered a role, but his deal is more tentative.

Eisenberg is set to co-star in Woody Allen’s next film and the indie comedy Predisposed.  He’s may also reunite with Noah Baumbach for While We’re Young.  He’ll next be seen alongside Aziz Ansari and Danny McBride in Ruben Fleischer’s heist comedy (why does Eisenberg love to steal in a humorous fashion?) 30 Minutes or Less.

Despite the film’s critical drubbing, the financial success of Clash of the Titans ($493 million worldwide) surely opened some doors for director Louis Letterier (especially once he handed the franchise keys to Jonathan Liebesman).  According to The Playlist, the heist thriller Now You See Me lies behind Door #1.  Now You See Me is a spec script from Edward Ricourt and Boaz Yakin (Prince of Persia) about “a crack FBI squad in a game of cat-and-mouse against a super team of the world’s greatest illusionists, who pull off a series of daring bank heists during their performances and showers the profits on to their audiences.”  Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Star Trek) will produce alongside Yakin and Bobby Cohen (Revolutionary Road).

Leterrier confirms to The Playlist that he’s still attached to Gravity, a high concept disaster flick where the Earth stops spinning and loses its gravitational pull.  There’s also the looming possibility of a Y: The Last Man adaptation; Leterrier recently suggested the 60-issue comic series may work best as a TV show.  However, both of those projects are further down the to-do list.  We’ll see if Now You See Me is up next for Leterrier, or if he’d prefer to knock on a few more doors first.

Fredrik Bond has been tapped to direct the sci-fi action flick Year 12.  Produced by Joe Roth (Alice in Wonderland) off of a spec script from Edward Ricourt, Year 12 is set in Manhattan and begins a dozen years after aliens have invaded Earth.  Per TheWrap, the film will follow the story of an “underwater uranium miner who is recruited by the human resistance to smuggle uranium in his blood so they can use it to blow up the alien mothership.”  The film is currently in turnaround at Paramount and is expected to land at a new studio in the near future.

Bond, an NYU film school alum, is known for his outstanding achievement in directing commercials for clients such as Guinness, Levis, and, you guessed it, department store extraordinaire, JC Penney.  In addition to Year 12, he is also attached to direct an adaptation of the ongoing comic book series Hack/Slash for Rogue Pictures as well as an English-remake of Bong Joon-ho’s South Korean monster movie, The Host, at Universal.

Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci continue to flex their producing muscles.  Not content with just steering projects such as Hawaii Five-0 and Cowboys & Aliens, the dynamic duo, under their Kurtzman Orci Paper Products production company, will be teaming up with Summit Entertainment to bring the spec Now You See Me to the big screen.  See Me is written by Edward Ricourt, a member of Marvel Studios’ Writing Program, and Boaz Yakin, known for Remember the Titans (yay!) and The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (boo!).  Hit the jump for details on the plot.