Alleged plane and car stealing home burglar Colton Harris-Moor will land in movie theaters, and 20th Century Fox has hired Milk‘s Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black to create the script.
David Gordon Green, of Pineapple Express, will direct the project, which is based on Bob Friel’s book proposal Taking Flight: The Hunt for a Young Outlaw, launched after his Outside magazine profile (which was published before Harris-Moor, aka the “barefoot bandit,” was arrested in the Bahamas on July 11.)
Undoubtedly Black will make use of Harris-Moor’s reportedly miserable childhood, where he allegedly faced verbal and physical abuse from his mother and bullied other kids in school (that he barely attended). In my head the film will open with a close up shot of “a hand-painted sign at the end of [his mother’s] wooded driveway [that] warns: ‘If you go past this sign you will be shot.'”
You’re encouraged to keep the “bareback-barefoot” quips to a minimum.
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fagburn
Great news – I just hope no-one makes any jokes about a certain “bareback bandit”…
Jon (not that one)
I’m disgusted.
M
He’s a really good screenwriter – I am sure it will be an interesting movie. (I am not sure why anyone would be against this.)
RickyRicardo
Will he be fucking the bandit bareback?
Hilarious
Only in America… A white kid commits a bunch of crimes and gets rewarded for it in the end. I wonder how much he sold the rights for.
I can introduce you to plenty of people who had miserable childhoods. What an individual.
Ted
FYI – the “bandit” did not sell anything. He will get nothing.
Hilarious
@Ted: In most states your likeness can’t be used without your consent so I find it hard to believe he didn’t get anything.
They’d be opening themselves up to a major lawsuit.
Jon B
Ugh, I’m obsessed with this kid, and was really upset he got caught.
Tangelo
I hope all the profits go to paying people for the crimes against them. Homes invaded, Credit Card info stolen, planes destroyed, boats destroyed. Plus, pay back all the municipalities for the police man hours hunting his sorry butt down. Yes, I know people we covered by “insurance” but what about all the time they spent working to make right what this punk did to them. The trauma of having your home violated. This kid deserves no fame or fans. He deserves a dark jail cell.
Watching a movie about his crime spree would be like watching a movie about Mel Gibson’s foul mouth. Pointless!
t.
Ted
I think the Son of Sam Law would apply
Baxter
@Tangelo: Far worse could be said about Billy the Kid, Bonnie and Clyde, or Jesse James, but they all ended up as American folk heroes.
shanelle
Watching this Barefoot White-man story unraveling in real time was like seeing a supahmodel fall on the runway. You dont want to look but you cannot help yourself.
Dustin Lance Beauford-Thomas Joseph Black has the right skillz to make a movie we’ll want to see. Just please lets not see DiCaprio in this updated version of “whitemen gone gonzo” ok? Catch me when you can, Part Deux.
@Maya Tangelo: We don’t call them “man hours” any more. It’s “staff time.” Women work on these cases too. Ever hear of Cagney and Lacey?
Jon (not that one)
If this dumbass hoodlum or his mother profit once cent for the story of this little jerk it will be yet another slap in the face to the people who’s homes and property were victimized by this creep.
Hey Ted. . .It wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that his mother has hired a high profile entertainment lawfirm/attorney to negotiate book and film deals . .
Small time criminal = big time profit. Those of us who live by the law/rules should take note. . .if your home is violated by some asshole kid, just laugh it off. . .suck it up because facebook turned interstate and international theft into a meme.
slobone
I think John Waters should direct…
robert
I believe it’s his mother who has sold the rights and will be raking in all the money. Whether Harris-Moor sees any of it will, I suppose, depend on what the law says about felons making any money from such ventures.
L.
“Taking Flight: The Hunt for a Young Outlaw”? That’s the title for the book?
I guess we should be thankful that DLB will write the movie, because it’s bound to be better than this.
L.
(One thing puzzles me, and it’s the animosity against the kid. C’mon guys – he did not kill anyone, afaik he didn’t even hurt anyone. Are we so materialistic that the theft of a few things, or even the crash of undoubtedly insured planes is grounds for such feelings? I thought the spree was funky, and the kid ballsy. As Baxter mentioned, popular movies were made about rather popular figures who did far, far worse. And other movies were made about characters who were far less interesting.)
Kyle412
Thank goodness for prison bars. That way Dustin Breback won’t be able to go after Colton.
Hilarious
@L.: You’re kidding right? If that kid wasn’t white no one in the world would be cheering him on.
If you love crooks who haven’t killed anyone I can hook you up with my cousin who’s currently in prison for robbing a store with no one in it.
Cheer him on. He didn’t hurt anyone so it’s ok, right?
According to you we should all go out and take whatever we want because it’s cute and should be supported. That would turn out great for everyone.
My head hurts. Just stop.
reason
Some of you clearly don’t understand insurance, I am sure the majority of the people only got the value of there property back after depreciation. Not close to enough to repurchase the item brand new, or something used 🙁 with the same quality if they took care of their stuff. This guy is lucky that he didn’t get shot to death, one of the reasons more people need to arm themselves. Sure his mom would be feeling differently if she was ordering up a coffin instead of entertainment lawyers. Throw this guy in jail and throw away the key.
Jeffree
@Reason #20: You forgot two key aspects of insurance in yr analysis:
1) Deductible: the amount of loss you sustain before the insurance kicks in. There is no “first dollar” coverage.
2) Risk rating: People who file claims are thereafter faced with higher rates.
If someone steals food to feed their hungry kids, we may be able to justify that on some level. Stealing laptops or cars, planes or boats is a whole ‘nother thing.
reason
@Jeffree: Yes, thanks for adding that in. Absolutely, this is not a hungry man steals bread story, this guy is nothing more than a self indulgent menace to society. Now he will get to hang out with his elk in prison, but the sad thing about it is he will probably come out more dangerous and skilled in criminality then when he goes in. Wont be surprised if he has accounts loaded with cash waiting for him as well.
Baxter
@Hilarious: Your cousin was missing two key ingredients to being an outlaw folk hero: he didn’t manage to evade the cops for a long time and he didn’t have any panache. Robbing a convenience store and getting arrested isn’t a very interesting story. I’ll bet if your cousin had robbed a bunch of banks over a few years while wearing a leotard, he’d have a shot at a movie too.
Jeffree
@Reason #22 Sorry I seemed so terse.
You’re oh so right that too often that time in prison makes someone more schooled in criminality than they were beforehand. One of my 25 aunts (that’s barely an exxageration!) is a parole officer & she has pushed to make sure that GED classes are available. Job training too.
Barefoot dude is obviously not stoopid, so if he wants to over come his bad past, he can learn to do something productive with his life. I hope he does !
Hilarious
@Baxter: Actually he evaded the cops for well over a year and only ended up getting caught because he joined the army and then went AWOL.
He picked up a Bonnie to his Clyde too and she went AWOL with him. They also had a kid or something. I don’t talk to him much so I’m fuzzy on when she had this kid, but she left him with her mom to go on their little crime spree.
He also tried to rob my parents house, but they were home, so he pretended he was just visiting.
Ah, criminals. They’re just not that bright.
reason
@Jeffree: Not terse at all, I like when people make valid points. Your aunt is defiantly doing the country a service. I happen to be a big fan of redemption, but all to often the prisoners end up re-offending which says a lot about our justice system. With the realities of politics everyone just sweeps it under the rug and says that it is just because the prisoners are evil. The republicans are too busy trying to make crime the democrats Waterloo and the democrats are to busy trying to appear tough on crime to solve the actual problem. Anyone that has seen the prison stories on MSNBC or the History Channel knows darn well why people are so deranged when they get out of prison. I don’t see how a normal, even Mother Teresa like, person can emerge from that places with all their marbles. Top it off with a for profit prison system that has people lobbying for longer sentences makes you wonder what is wrong with this country, especially when the tax payer is footing the bill and is also going to bare the brunt of the criminals wrath when they are back on the street. We desperately need prison reform: we should be trying to educate and instill some values in these individuals instead of paying for them to become hardened criminals.
Jon (not that one)
Imagine coming home from a vacation to find that someone has not only stolen (and presumably sold) family heirlooms, but has been living in your home, sleeping in your bed, rummaging through your drawers etc.
Insurance doesn’t cover that kind of damage.
This story may just be fodder for entertainment to most, but it’s real to those of us who live in the area and have seen the fear and devastation of privacy violated by this creep.
It’s not entertaining.
TheRealDeal
@Kyle412: Yeap, you said it man, and Dustin will probably cast and bareback Brent Corrigan in the title role.
Eminent Victorian
If this story is true it makes me think a lot less of Mr. Black. This kid and/ or his reprobate mother are going to make money off of crime. The only story here is that none of the people who were burglarized or had their property destroyed are seeing a dime. Pathetic.
L.
@Hilarious: No, I’m not kidding. He actually did not hurt anyone, and, again, far worse people were turned into folk heroes. Baxter’s point is quite valid as well – the circumstances lend this story some sort of weird panache. I don’t believe jail – that extraordinary school for crime – is the right answer in this case. And I’m not saying that because he’s cute (I personally don’t think so) but I’m saying it because I believe it to be true for others in this situation.
That said, sorry to make your head hurt. We agree on so many topics, yet we butt heads on this one. I won’t convince you, and you won’t convince me, so let’s just agree to etc.