Benedict Cumberbatch to Star in THE MAN IN THE ROCKEFELLER SUIT

Everyone loves con men. Right? That's what film and tv have taught me. Some criminals are bad but con men? Con men are just misunderstood. Like the Music Man. What a guy! Well, Benedict Cumberbatch is about to join the ranks of likable con men in the new film by Fox Searchlight, The Man in the Rockefeller Suit.

The film is about the true story of Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter. He was a man who posed as a member of the famous Rockefeller family to get various jobs on Wall Street and even to get married. He used his fake identity to get close to the richest and most powerful people on earth until he finally gets caught and then fears losing custody of his daughter. I mean, if your name was Gerhartsreiter, wouldn't you want to pretend to be someone else to?

Cumberbatch, of course, is wonderful so I have no doubt he'll do great in the role. The film has yet to find a director but is being adapted into a screenplay by David Bar Katz from the book by Mark Seal. Here's the description from the book:

This shocking expose goes behind the headlines to uncover the true story of Clark Rockefeller, wealthy scion of a great American family, who kidnapped his own daughter and vanished. The police and FBI were baffled. Tips poured in, but every lead was a dead end … because “Clark Rockefeller” did not exist. In a gripping work of investigative journalism, Mark Seal reveals how German native Christian Gerhartsreiter came to the United States, where he stepped in and out of identities for decades, eventually posing as a Rockefeller for twelve years, married to a wealthy woman who had no idea who he really was. Fast-paced, hypnotic, and now updated with more stunning details, The Man in the Rockefeller Suit chillingly reveals the audacity and cunning of a shape-shifting con man.

Source: Deadline