The writer of Braveheart, that rousing Scottish film, Randall Wallace is set to direct a film about Arthur Conan Doyle and a secret society called The Arcanum.

The story not only has Arthur Conan Doyle but also Harry Houdini, H.P. Lovecraft, Aleister Crowley and Marie Laveau as members of the society and is set in 1919.

The news comes from Reuters through Yahoo News and tells us that the film is adapted from the novel by Thomas Wheeler. His novel, of the same name, tells of these great names of the past who try to protect the world against an evil force.

Randall Wallace previously adapted the Atlas Shrugged novel for the Angelina Jolie starring film, and directed the superb We Were Soldiers with Mel Gibson (let's not mention Pearl Harbor). He's currently working on the C.S. Lewis story The Screwtape Letters.

Now Wallace's credentials are good, and despite mediocre reviews for the novel, the concept for The Arcanum sounds a very interesting one, taking these historical figures and weaving a story around them. Would it interest you? Have you read the novel?