Reports are emerging that Doctor Strange and Sherlock Holmes actor, Benedict Cumberbatch is currently in talks with Fox Searchlight to take the lead in David Bar Katz adaptation of The Man in the Rockefeller Suit.
The Man in the Rockefeller Suit is based on Mark Seal’s book on the real life con man Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a convicted murderer and con man who is currently serving a prison sentence in the United States, who later took on the identity, Clark Rockefeller as well as other aliases including Chris C. Crowe, Chris Chichester, Charles Smith, Chip Smith. He conned his way into many jobs on Wall Street as well as marrying a wealthy woman with whom he had a child.
The book’s synopsis reads; In 2008, Clark Rockefeller, wealthy scion of a great American family, made headlines when he kidnapped his own daughter and vanished. The FBI and police were baffled. Despite tips and apparent sightings pouring in from the outraged public, every lead was a dead end, because ‘Clark Rockefeller’ did not exist. In this gripping work of investigative journalism, Mark Seal digs into the life and lies of this audacious criminal. Fast-paced and well researched this bizarre tale mixes fraud, imposters, kidnap and murder in one riveting story.
Pablo Trapero had previously been attached to the picture but that never quite happened, Screenwriter David Bar Katz has adapted the script and Donald De Line will be producing the Fox Searchlight picture but a director and production date are yet to be announced.
Cumberbatch is no stranger to playing real-life characters, back in 2014 he starred as Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, then in 2015 played Billy Bulger, the brother of Whitey Bulger in Black Mass and is currently in production with The Current War in which he will play Thomas Edison.
