A half-decade ago, Sony snapped up the the English language remake rights to Benjamin Heisenberg‘s "Der Rauber" ("The Robber"), a German thriller that picked up good notices on the festival circuit at the time. As often happens, not much was heard about it afterwards. But the project now has a new home and a great filmmaker attached to get it off the ground.
READ MORE: ‘The Robber’ Is A Relentless Character-Based Thriller
J.C. Chandor ("A Most Violent Year," "All Is Lost") has signed up to helm the picture, which is now set up at FilmNation Enterntainment. Chase Palmer, who is writing "It" for Warner Bros., will pen the script for the real-life story of marathon runner Johann Rettenberger aka "Pump-gun Ronnie" who earned his name by robbing banks. Here’s the synopsis of the original film:
Johann Rettenberger leads a double life as a championship runner and serial bank robber, sprinting between heists (and away from police cars) as many as three times a day. As portrayed in a riveting central performance by Andreas Lust (Munich), Rettenberger is an obsessive loner more concerned with his lap times than other human beings. Once he falls into a relationship with a social worker, Erika (Franziska Weisz), it becomes impossible to hide his crimes, and the violence he reserved for his robberies starts seeping into his daily life.
No word yet on when production begin, but up next for Chandor is "Triple Frontier," which is starting to assemble an A-list cast. [Variety]
The original is a pretty good film and it\’s a perfect basis for a JC Chandor film. Should be right up his alley.