What were you like when you were eight years old? If you were like most, you were in elementary school, going on play dates with friends, having the occasional sleep-over and going to birthday parties at Chuck E. Cheese. Colton Harris-Moore was stealing a bike and beginning a life of crime that has gone on and escalated over the last 11 years. Since that first brush with the law, Harris-Moore has had more than 100 crimes tagged with his name and has stolen every single motorized vehicle you can think of. And now he's going to have a movie made about him.
Variety is reporting that the young criminal, nicknamed the "barefoot burglar," will be the subject of an upcoming biopic after Fox picked up the rights to his story. The film will possibly be directed by Pineapple Express' David Gordon Green and will be produced by Green, Danny McBride, Jody Hill, and Matt Reilly for their production studio, Rough House Pictures. The kid's story is currently being shopped as a book, titled Taking Flight: THe Hunt For A Young Outlaw, written by Bob Friel, who previously profiled the bandit in the magazine Outside (Read said article here).
This story is going to get one of two reactions. The first is going to be excited, as there are some fantastic stories that have come out about the kid, such as Harris-Moore eluding capture by taking off in a plane without any previous flying experience. He also has a major Facebook following, which translates to "fanbase" in Hollywood speak. The other side will argue that this is a case of the movie industry glorifying a life of crime, and they wouldn't be wrong. There are multiple films out there that do this, such as Bonnie and Clyde, Thelma & Louise, Natural Born Killers, Robin Hood, etc. But I also choose to point you towards the Motion Picture Production Code, better known as The Hayes Code, that specifically stated that "sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin," and banned any film that didn't comply. So here is the catch-22: does this film get made and exist for the pure sake of entertainment, or does it empower and encourage the behavior of the protagonist. Comment section, I leave it to you.
