Robert Downey Jr. brings 'Emergency' to screen

LOS ANGELES  - Columbia Pictures has optioned the rights to "Emergency!: This Book Will Save Your Life," a non-fiction book from best-selling author Neil Strauss.

Robert Downey Jr. will serve as one of the producers on the film and possibly star.

Strauss is best known for writing the books "How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale" with Jenna Jameson, and "The Dirt" with Motley Crue.

Strauss wrote "Emergency!" with current disasters -- tsunamis, hurricanes, terrorist attacks, swine flu epidemics -- as the backdrop.

He spent three years trekking through the U.S. and acquiring the tools to survive a major catastrophe.

According to the studio, "Emergency!" traces one man's journey as "he sets out to move his life offshore, and in the process, he learns to survive in the wild, and remake himself as a gun-toting, lock-picking, plane-flying, government-defying survivor.

"Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps" scribe Allan Loeb is set to write the script.