The Paramount Global feature film Heist 88, a project that has been in the works since 2017 is set to begin filming in Chicago next month with a start date of August 1 through September 2. The movie was originally associated with FX as a series.
Two-time Emmy award winner Courtney B. Vance (61st Street) has partnered with Dwayne Johnson-Cochran to Executive Produce the project together. Vance won his Emmys for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in Lovecraft Country and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or a Movie in FX’s The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.
Johnson-Cochran, who co-created the NBC series Minor Adjustments and directed the HBO film Love and Action in Chicago, is credited as the writer of the script which is based on the real life events of one of the largest heists in United States history.
Currently Vance and Johnson-Cochran are the only two officially confirmed to the project, however filming will begin soon, so we will do a follow up with more information as soon as they reveal the details.
Set in 1988, Heist 88 chronicles the true story about Armand Moore, a 33 year old ex-con from Detroit, who was paroled from Minnesota’s Sandstone federal prison after serving four years of an eleven-year term for fraud, who masterminded a plot to defraud the First National Bank of Chicago out of almost $70 million.
Moore enlisted the help of his cousin, who knew an employee at First National Bank of Chicago and from there they collected at least two additional people to create a team of approximately five to help them carry out their crime. It’s estimated that the crew took a month to plan the wire-fraud heist.
The production will be based at Cinespace Chicago Film Studios. It’s safe to assume that filming locations will include a building meant to be the First National Bank of Chicago as well as a hotel where the crew plotted their scam. In real life they met at a Quality Inn on Chicago’s west side.
