Robert Downey Jr. Treasure Hunting in Yucatan?

Robert Downey Jr. is set to star in heist/adventure film Yucatan, according to Deadline New York. The film is a first-priority project for Downey and his wife Susan’s production company, Team Downey. And Warner Bros. has hired screenwriter and producer Anthony Peckham to write the film’s screenplay. Peckham’s screenwriting credits include Sherlock Holmes, Don’t Say a Word and Invictus. He is being paid seven-figures to start over on the project, which the studio has wanted to make for five years.

Yucatan will be based on a story created by screen legend Steve McQueen, who died in 1980. McQueen compiled 1500 pages of notes and storyboards that filled 15 notebooks for the story idea in the late 1960s. McQueen really wanted to make the film and star in it, but, unfortunately, the project never got off the ground.

The project was set back in motion at Warner Bros. in 2005 after McQueen’s son, Chad, and his Godson, Lance Sloane, discovered the notebooks in an old trunk. The project stalled until the Downeys took custody following the launching of their first-look deal at Warner Bros. This deal came after Downey had starred in Sherlock Holmes and the upcoming Todd Phillips-directed comedy Due Date and agreed to star another Sherlock Holmes installment, which he is currently shooting in the UK.

Downey’s character in Yucatan will be a renegade deep-sea salvage expert hired to steal a mysterious hidden treasure hidden deep underwater in the Mayan ruins of Yucatan. The Downeys will produce the film along with Dan Lin.