Even though football movies are usually a slam dunk at the box office, Invincible came and went from theaters earlier this year with little notice. A shame, since it’s a great sports movie, one of the best in years. Though audiences didn’t seem to pay attention, apparently New Line Cinema did. They’ve hired the film’s first-time director Ericson Core to handle directorial duties on their new movie Conrail.
Variety says the film will be based on the real-life story of a modern-day Robin Hood named Eddie Mongon, the ringleader of the Conrail Boyz gang. Using high-tech equipment and brains, they robbed trains and shared their loot with the poorest of poor in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Mongon was arrested in 2004, and since then New Line has been pursuing his story as a feature film. They’ve had the rights almost since Mongon’s arrest, and they’ve got a script by Chris Murphy which Core will work on rewriting.
I’m actually surprised I’ve never heard of Eddie Mongon before. His story sounds compelling, and you’d think there would have been a media feeding frenzy over a gang of modern day train robbers. That doesn’t happen ever day. As a movie, it could work.
