Roger Donaldson most recently directed The Bank Job and has directed such films as the Tom Cruise starrer Cocktail, No Way Out with Kevin Costner and The Recruit starring Al Pacino and Colin Farrell. Now, Variety reports he is headed back to the director’s chair to film an adaptation of the Seymour Reit book “The Day They Stole the Mona Lisa.”
The book centers on the theft of the world’s most famous painting from the Louvre in 1911. It was missing for more than two years before an Italian carpenter named Vincent Perugia showed up with the painting in Florence. The film will center on the conman who masterminded the theft.
This is an interesting idea, and I am curious as to where the intrigue lies. Will it play out as a Thomas Crown Affair kind of film only set in 1911? If so that may actually be interesting depending on the approach. Will the film be played for comedy or dead serious?
A trip over to Wikipedia tells me the name of the thief was Vincenzo Peruggia who actually worked at the Louvre and stole the painting because he believed it should be returned to Italy for display in an Italian museum. Not sure how that makes him a “conman,” but who says films have never fudged the facts? Frost/Nixon anyone?
