I love movies about stealing, probably because I’m half Mexican (by marriage). Which is why I’m excited to report that JJ Abrams, Professor Lens Flare himself, is producing a film about the World’s Biggest Diamond Heist, based on a Wired article written by Josh “Regular Name” Davis. Abrams and Paramount have hired Phil Alden Robinson to adapt the story, who hasn’t done much since writing Sneakers and Field of Dreams in the early 90s.
The article, the rights to which Paramount acquired in March 2009, described the true story of an unprecedented diamond heist in Antwerp, Belgium, and the crew that pulled it off. In early 2003, a small group of Italian thieves circumvented 10 layers of security to access a vault beneath the Antwerp Diamond Center and make off with a purported $100 million in diamonds, gold and jewelry (the actual value remains a mystery).
During a six-year span, Davis scored a series of interviews with the ringleader, incarcerated in a Belgian prison, who finally divulged how it was done. Davis acquired the subject’s life rights in the process. [HeatVision]
Call me crazy, but when I think “successful heist” I don’t think “in jail for the last six years.” I wonder what got them busted. I bet they tried to pull the old pass-off-a-character-who-looks-like-Julia-Roberts-as-Julia-Roberts trick. Based on what I know from movies, robbers are always trying to pull that one.
JJ Abrams to direct a movie on the largest diamond heist ever
Reply With Quote
