Pretty Bird, the rocketbelt caper movie most definitely NOT based on my Rocketbelt Caper book, finally gets a straight-to-DVD release in June.

The movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2008, but has sat on a shelf ever since. It stars Paul Giamatti, Billy Crudup and David Hornsby, and was directed by Paul Schneider. The story is credited to Zene Baker…

The original Wikipedia entry for the movie stated that it was based on The Rocketbelt Caper. However, as the revision history shows, a user named Econbowery has ‘removed erroneous information (that this movie is based on a book)’. Econbowery’s only user contributions to Wikipedia have been to edit the Pretty Bird listing.

The Rocketbelt Caper tells the true story of three men (Brad Barker, Larry Stanley and Joe Wright) who set out to build a rocketbelt, nicknamed Pretty Bird, only for their friendship to fall apart in bizarre and dramatic circumstances.

By contrast, Pretty Bird tells the fictional story of three men (Kurt, Rick and Kenny) who set out to build a rocketbelt, nicknamed Pretty Bird, only for their friendship to fall apart in bizarre and dramatic circumstances.

The movie had mixed reviews after the premiere and failed to find a distributor, hence its straight-to-DVD release. See some reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. This review mentions The Rocketbelt Caper.

For the record, I have had no involvement or contact with anyone involved in the production of Pretty Bird. The movie option for The Rocketbelt Caper was purchased by another production company, but that option expired without a film going into production. (Interestingly, Pretty Bird is being released by Paramount – the same company that held the Rocketbelt Caper option.) I have not yet seen Pretty Bird, and so have no reason to believe it takes any details from the book that are not otherwise available in the public domain. I am looking forward to seeing it.

The Amazon product description says: ‘Based on a true stoy, this comic tale of three would-be entrepreneurs set out to invent a rocket belt. The venturesome partnership soon takes an unhealthy toll as their mismatched personalities clash and some unexpected success lead to retaliations and kidnapping in this parable of American dreams and delusions.’

The DVD is released on 29 June 2010 and can be pre-ordered from Amazon.com.

The Rocketbelt Caper is available in paperback and as a download here. It should also be available on Kindle soon.

Books, Film Pretty Bird, The Rocketbelt Caper