LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Mount Everest hides as many great stories as it does buried bodies. George Mallory was both.

Sony is in final discussions to make a movie based on Jeffrey Archer's recent historical novel, Paths of Glory, about the mystery surrounding Mallory's 1924 possible ascent of the world's tallest mountain. The script would be written by Sheldon Turner (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning).

Mallory's legacy involves the possibility that he -- and not Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953 -- was the first man to reach the summit of the Nepalese peak. Mallory made several attempts, and competed with Australian climber George Finch, who first used oxygen. But he and his partner Andrew Irvine never returned from their June 1924 climb.

In 1999, Mallory's frozen body was found near the summit on the North Face, and debate has raged ever since about whether he was actually on his way down or up. Archer's novel was published in February by St. Martin's Press.

(Editing by dean.goodman at Reuters)

Sony