Thursday, December 3, 2009

Colton Harris-Moore's Life Is Worth More Than Yours

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Colton Harris-Moore, the "Barefoot Burglar" making life miserable for authorities in and around sleepy Camano Island, is now the subject of a possible bidding war.

Yesterday The Daily Weekly was contacted by an anonymous film producer who claimed to have the ear of potential investors. Today another producer, identifying himself only as "Tim from Hollywood," called in hopes that an anonymous e-mail account (barefootburgler@gmail.com - and yes, the misspelling was intentional) and the promise of sweet lucre will be enough to convince Harris-Moore to sell his story rights...

Tim's pitch is pretty simple. He says he works for an independent company that has a "first-look" deal with a larger studio. (In Hollywood, this arrangement roughly means that the studio acts as a rich, if discerning, uncle, able to say yay or nay to any potential project before anyone else gets a glimpse.) While declining to actually list his bona fides (and thus reveal his or his company's identity), Tim claims that he has worked with A and B-list actors and has at least one show, right now, on prime-time, network TV.

As for how much Harris-Moore should expect, Tim said between $5,000 to $100,000. Seems pretty small potatoes to us considering any real answer would hurt his bargaining power. But as he pointed out, that's only the money Harris-Moore would get for the right to option his life story. Actually getting a movie made (and at this, Tim said his company was especially adept) would mean another check.

So what to make of all this? Well first, it's clear there's a special circle of hell devoted to us and Tim for essentially promoting this kid's felonious lifestyle. Especially considering, as the tale gets richer, so too does Harris-Moore and/or Tim. (Tim's take on this: To really sell the story Harris-Moore should make his final criminal act on the biggest stage imaginable. Like parachuting into a major sporting event. "The World Series is coming up," says Tim. "He should think about that.")

Just in case anyone is concerned, we'd still like everything to turn out OK. Or as OK as it can be. With Harris-Moore turning himself in, no one else getting burglarized and no one -- this is the most important part -- getting hurt. Until then, though, man, this story keeps getting weirder.

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