Plans are set for a high-profile miniseries starring an Academy Award-winning actor as an enigmatic real-life figure. The Los Angeles Times' Show Tracker reports that History will televise "Houdini" on Sept. 1-2.

The project stars Adrien Brody, an Oscar winner for "The Pianist," as famed illusionist and stunt performer Harry Houdini.

"'Houdini' will chart the rise of the world-famous performer, who got his start performing with his brother on Coney Island in the 1890s and became a headline act around the globe before dying in Detroit after an unexpected series of abdominal punches from a fan," the article notes.

The cast includes Kristen Connolly as Houdini's wife and Evan Jones as his assistant. The project will also examine Houdini's friendship with Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes.

"Uli Edel, whose movie 'The Baader Meinhof Complex,' was nominated for an Oscar in the foreign-language film category, directed the miniseries from a script by Nicholas Meyer, who once wrote his own Sherlock Holmes pastiche, 'The Seven-Per-Cent Solution,'" the Times adds.

Adrien Brody