Tobey Maguire and Ed Zwick Are Making a ‘Pawn Sacrifice’

The story of Bobby Fischer and his famous chess match with Boris Spassky is stuff of nerd legend. It's surprising no one's made a movie about it before, but now Edward Zwick is attached to direct, and Tobey Maguire as Fischer is set to produce and star in 'Pawn Sacrifice,' which will cover the match.

This comes from Variety. Zwick will be leaving 'The Great Wall' to direct this - funding  never came together - and  he's probably best known for films like 'Glory,' 'The Last Samurai' and 'Blood Diamond.' These films are also known for putting do-gooding (white) famous people in the middle of conflicts that aren't naturally theirs.

Tobey Maguire will next be seen in 2013's 'The Great Gatsby,' which was recently delayed for a summer launch, and just finished filming Jason Reitman's 'Labor Day.' But it feels like Maguire has kept a relatively low profile after he finished the Sam Raimi 'Spider-Man' trilogy. Perhaps because - as they tried to make a fourth entry - he was still under contract, or perhaps the success of those movies made him successful enough not to care.

Though chess doesn't seem inherently cinematic, there's been at least two great films made about it: 'Searching for Bobby Fischer' and 'Fresh.' Making their battle cinematic has to be the biggest challenge of the film. We hope they're up for it.