"Pump-gun Ronnie" Making His Way To The USA
Sony has bought the English-language remake rights to Austrian helmer Benjamin Heisenberg's "The Robber."
Based on author Martin Prinz's source tome, "Der Rauber" tells the real-life story of marathon runner Johann Rettenberger, known as "Pump-gun Ronnie," who made a hobby of robbing banks. The Austrian-German thriller, which unspooled in competition at this year's Berlin Film Festival, had its German bow in March.
This time last year, Sony and Scott Rudin snapped up remake rights to Swedish-language hit "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." The David Fincher-helmed adaptation is currently lensing in Sweden.
Laura Ziskin will serve as producer on "The Robber" retread. Sony has yet to announce a director.
Watch the Austrian trailer after the Jump..
Here is a description of the book from it's publisher:
In the 1980s the bank-robber Johann Rettenberger was the most wanted criminal in Austria. Known as Pumpgun Ronnie because of the weapon he used and the Ronald Reagan mask he wore for his robberies, he sometimes robbed two or three banks on the same day. He was also wanted for one murder, unconnected with the bank robberies. Unusually for a bank-robber, he was also a keen amateur marathon runner and had won several races. He jumped out of a window during questioning and escaped by running into the Vienna Woods. It took four days and the biggest police operation in Austrian history before he was cornered and shot himself. On the Run is not an attempt to analyse or explain, much less excuse Rettenberger, nor is it a biographical novel recreating the details of his life in chronological order. It is a novel about a man for whom running is of existential importance. He only seems to feel truly alive, truly himself, truly free when he is running. Although it does have the forward drive of the excitement of the chase, from the perspective of the quarry, it is more of an Austrian The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner than a thriller.
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Source-Variety
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