WARNERS DEVELOPS ‘RABBIT’ FOR CHRIS TUCKER

Warner Bros. is developing “The Rabbit,” an escape artist action comedy that will star Chris Tucker with Dan Lin producing.

Project’s based on a spec script written by Micah Barnett and centers on a Las Vegas magician and master escape artist, who’s forced to flee the country and becomes an internationally renowned “Houdini for hire” for clients wanting to break themselves or loved ones out of prison. All that changes when the CIA offers him a chance of redemption in exchange for one final job — to retrieve a socially stunted master counterfeiter from a remote Eastern European fortress before the Russian mob can get to him.

WME, which reps Barnett and Tucker, handled the sale.

Barnett previously wrote “The Merc List,” which was optioned by Steven Schneider and Jason Blum for the Blum/Hansen Fund.

Jon Silk at Lin Pictures brought in the project and will serve as co-producer and oversee for Lin Pictures. Sarah Schechter and Niija Kuykendall are overseeing for Warner Bros.

Tucker last starred in 2007’s “Rush Hour 3” for New Line and has limited his big-screen appearances to the “Rush Hour” pics since 1998. In 1997, he appeared in “Jackie Brown,” Money Talks” and “The Fifth Element.”

Warner-based Lin is a producer on both “Sherlock Holmes” films and is developing “Godzilla,” “Tales From the Gangster Squad” and “Yucatan” for the studio.

The project was developed by Lin and FilmEngine’s Jake Wagner, Barnett’s manager.