Al Pacino eyes starring role in "Blink"

Al Pacino gestures on the red carpet as he arrives for his movie ''Chinese Coffee'' at Rome's Film Festival October 22, 2008.

CANNES (Hollywood Reporter) - The mystery of how Malcolm Gladwell's nonfiction bestseller "Blink" will be turned into a movie is starting to give way to answers.

Al Pacino is in talks for one of the lead roles, with a number of younger actors, some with tween appeal, circling the other lead part in the film.

The script by Stephen Gaghan ("Traffic," "Syriana"), who is also directing, will center on an older man and the twentysomething son he was never close to. After the two reconnect, the boy, an idealistic drifter who's teaching in a downtown New York school, and the father, a finance type living in Connecticut, must navigate their new relationship.

The connection to the book is that the son has the Blink qualities that Gladwell discusses: He can size up people and situations on a dime. Recognizing this ability, his father wants to help the boy find himself while at the same time using him to make some dough on Wall Street.

The project initially had been set up at Universal but has been reincarnated as an independent film, with William Morris Independent's Incentive film fund coming up with the financing and shopping the package to U.S. distributors here in Cannes.

(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)