The tale of D.B Cooper has become legendary amongst many in the US. The man is now considered something of a myth after boarding a plane, hijacking it, exorting $20.000, and then parachuting to freedom only to vanish in winter 1971. It is thought he could not have survived such a fall, but both he and the money were never recovered, giving him heroic status to American folk.
Now it looks as if his true-life tale will finally be brought to the big-screen by EASY A and FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS director Will Gluck. The film will be based of Geoffrey Gray’s novel, which was finally released last year. The novel comes with the following in-depth synopsis:
‘I have a bomb here and I would like you to sit by me.’
That was the note handed to a stewardess by a mild-mannered passenger on a Northwest Orient flight in 1971. It was the start of one of the most astonishing whodunits in the history of American crime: how one man extorted $200,000 from an airline, then parachuted into the wilds of the Pacific Northwest and into oblivion. D.B. Cooper’s case has also become an obsession for his pursuers, cursing them with everything from bankruptcy to suicidal despair. Now with ‘Skyjack, journalist Geoffrey Gray delves into this unsolved mystery, uncovering new leads in the famous case.
Starting with a tip from a private investigator on a promising suspect (a Cooper lookalike, Northwest employee, and trained paratrooper), Gray is propelled into the murky depths of a decades-old mystery, conducting new interviews and obtaining a first-ever look at Cooper’s FBI file. Beginning with a heart-stopping and unprecedented re-creation of the crime itself, from cabin to cockpit to tower, ‘Skyjack’ offers uncanny portraits of characters who have either chased Cooper or might have committed the crime. The clues to unmasking the unknown hijacker are buried in the wallet of a retired insurance salesman, the prison record of a Green Beret on trial for murder, the deathbed confession of an older brother, the medical records of a transgendered woman, and the memories of countless other astonishing suspects.
The are currently no cast names attached, but this will no doubt attract major stars with its still unsolved and fascinating plot. We’ll keep you posted on any further developments.
Source: Deadline
