Over the years, the world has faced its fair share of unsolved mysteries. From the identity of the infamous Zodiac Killer, which has spawned books, films, and other media theorizing about whom the man behind the notorious San Francisco killings was, to the eerie and suspicious death of the unknown man at the center of the Tamám Shud case, head-scratching happenings have led law enforcement and armchair detectives to continuously pick apart cases piece by piece — often leading to more questions than answers.
If you were to ask an American to name one of their country’s most famous unsolved cases, chances are that many would mention the identity and secret treasure of D.B. Cooper. In a mash-up documentary-meets-scripted dramatization titled I am DB Cooper, Gravitas Ventures and director T.J. Regan is hoping to bring some long-awaited answers about the man behind the legend.
In a trailer released today, the story behind D.B. Cooper begins to unravel as an elderly man named Rodney Bonnifield confesses that he is in fact the infamous bandit. After he’s been arrested by local law enforcement officers after a harrowing assault on a dairy farm that involved a machete, Bonnifield decides to reveal it all and come clean about his true identity — that he is in fact D.B. Cooper — and that, even more strangely, the cash cache is still out there, buried somewhere alongside the Columbia River. While this may seem like a larger-than-life tale at first, the trailer promises that Bonnifield will back up his claims by dropping information that only the man behind the heist would know.
Meanwhile, audiences will be taken through the events leading up to, during, and following Cooper’s robbery that saw him hijacking and then jumping out of a plane over 50 years ago. Stepping into the role of the man at the center of it all will be Ryan Cory with Bonnifield’s real-life ex-girlfriend and famous singer, Rita Coolidge played by Rainee Blake. The feature will also star Sharmila Sahni, Chris Grounds, and Regan.
Although the official investigation into the whereabouts of Cooper was closed back in 2016, with many members of the FBI believing the man simply didn’t survive the parachute jump, there’s been a recent resurgence in curiosity about the case. Over the summer, Netflix dropped a docuseries titled D.B. Cooper: Where Are You?! which poured over the facts hoping to better understand the man and the crime itself.
With the popularity of documentary projects including Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries and the Ryan Murphy-created dramatized true-story based The Watcher, I am DB Cooper will certainly find a home with true-crime and mystery lovers everywhere hoping for some solid answers. You can check out the film’s trailer below and catch it in theaters and on-demand on December 9.