Jordan Mintzer, international man of mystery, wears many hats: he’s a tax consultant, he’s the Paris correspondent for The Hollywood Reporter, he’s one of the producers of Matt Porterfield’s remarkable first two films, “Hamilton” and “Putty Hill” (for the latter, he also co-wrote the story), and tomorrow his book “Conversations avec James Gray” will be issued by the French publisher Editions Synecdoche. Gray, of course, is the director who, in a mere quartet of films, from “Little Odessa,” in 1995, to “Two Lovers,” from 2009, has made a cinematic universe of his own, the working-class Jewish families of Brooklyn and Queens (“Two Lovers,” in particular, is one of the meteoric movies of recent years, a romantic melodrama with a surface of dreams and limits and a substratum of colossal wars of the soul). And he was scheduled to make a film based on the book “The Lost City of Z,” by David Grann, of this magazine; Brad Pitt was slated to star; and then it all fell apart.

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And the writing was on the wall yesterday. Pitt dancing around a new shiny toy that is Andrew Dominik‘s new project, the crime caper “Coogan’s Trade” with a possible impressive cast that may include Casey Affleck, Javier Bardem, Sam Rockwell and Mark Ruffalo (plus he’s interested in another project called, “The Gray Man”). Anyone paying attention all along knew that this news had to smell like bad news for the long-gestating “The Lost City Of Z.” And yup, it pretty much does.

The adventure tale was being excitingly billed as a “Lawrence Of Arabia”-style epic and now had Inferno Entertainment’s Bill Johnson and Jim Siebel on board alongside Pitt and his Plan B shingle with buyers at Cannes “flocking to the project” earlier this year. The thought was at the time, principal photography could commence as soon as Pitt completed his turn on “Moneyball” which shot this summer.

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Inferno Entertainment has come aboard as international sales agent on James Gray’s red-hot adventure project The Lost City Of Z to star Brad Pitt.

Buyers have been flocking to the project, which is being styled in the vein of Lawrence Of Arabia and is based on Gray’s adapted screenplay of David Grann’s recent bestseller.

The true story takes place in the early twentieth century and charts 30 years in the life of Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, a former decorated British soldier turned explorer.

Fawcett developed an obsession for the Amazon and became convinced that an advanced civilisation lived within the interior after several adrenaline-fuelled expeditions where he narrowly escaped death from tribal encounters, deadly animals and devastating diseases.

He eventually lost backing for the trips and self-funded a final trek into the Amazon with his son from which neither returned.

It is understood Pitt’s Plan B will produce. Inferno’s Bill Johnson and Jim Siebel declined to comment, however they would most likely come aboard as executive producers.

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From interview with Author David Grann.

Q: Brad Pitt and Paramount optioned The Lost City of Z in the spring. Any updates?

DG: They have hired a screenwriter and director and seem to be moving forward at a good clip.

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