After playing a Marvel superheroDoctor Strangeand returning as the iconic detectiveSherlock Holmeson the small screen,Benedict Cumberbatchmay be shifting gears, eyeing a new true story adaptation. The actor has entered negotiations to play con artistChristian Karl GerhartsreiterinThe Man in the Rockefeller Suitfor Fox Searchlight Pictures. If a deal comes together, this will mark just the latest in a long line of fascinating real-life characters the Oscar-nominated actor has portrayed in his career.
Deadlinereports thatDavid Bar Katz(The Pest) will write theadapted screenplay, based onMark Seal’s book of the same name.Donald De Linewill produce, with Fox Searchlight currently searching for a director before setting a production schedule. It remains to be seen if the studio wants to start production this year, of if they are aiming for a specific release date at this time for the biopic.
Christian Karl Gerhartsreiterwas born in Germany, but in the late 1970s, he made his way to America under several false pretenses and phony identities. After a stint in Connecticut, the con artist made his way to Wisconsin, where he studied at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and he marriedAmy Jersild Duhnkein 1981, supposedly only to get his green card. He falsely claimed that he would have to go back to Germany and fight in theCold Warif she did not marry him. A day after the wedding, he left her and made his way to San Marino, California, where he stayed in a guest house belonging to the mother of Jonathan Solhus and his wife Linda, who both mysteriously went missing in 1985.Christian Karl Gerhartsreiterwould relocate back to the East Coast, where in 1995, he used the name Clark Rockefeller, claiming to be part of the wealthy Rockefeller family, to marry a woman named Sandra Boss.
Sandra Boss was ahigh-ranking executiveat the management consulting firm McKinsey, who was the sole breadwinner in the family, althoughChristian Karl Gerhartsreitercontrolled all of the family’s finances. Sandra Boss hired a private investigator in 2006 and learned that “Clark Rockefeller” wasn’t who he said he was and had no ties to the Rockefeller family, which lead to their divorce. During a supervised visit with his eight-year-old daughter in 2008,Christian Karl Gerhartsreiterkidnapped her, and he was apprehended a week later in Baltimore, Maryland. In 2009, he was found guilty of parental kidnapping and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and sentenced to four to five years. However, later that year, a grand jury was convened to look intoChristian Karl Gerhartsreiter’s connection to the 1980s murder ofJonathan Sohus, whose bones were found buried in the backyard of his house in 1994, nearly a decade after he went missing. In August 2013,Christian Karl Gerhartsreiterwas found guilty of murderingJonathan Sohus, and was given the maximum sentence of 27 years to life. He will be eligible for parole in 2039, when he will be 78 years old.
Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter’s story was previously told on the small screen in the 2010 Lifetime TV movieWho Is Clark Rockefeller?, which starredEric McCormackasChristian Karl GerhartsreiterandSherry Stringfieldas Sandra Boss. The movie came out one year beforeThe Man in the Rockefeller Suitbook was published byMark Seal.Benedict Cumberbatchwill next be seen portrayingThomas EdisoninThe Current War, while reprising his role asDoctor StrangeinThor: Ragnarokand next year’sAvengers: Infinity War. He previously played real-life characters such as Alan Turing inThe Imitation Game, Billy Bulger inBlack Massand Julian Assange inThe Fifth Estate. Hopefully we’ll hear more about The Man in The Rockefeller Suit soon.
