Author Don Winslow Options Crime Novel ‘The Last Good Heist for film

EXCLUSIVE: Bestselling author Don Winslow has optioned screen rights to the non-fiction book The Last Good Heist: The Inside Story Of The Biggest Single Payday In The Criminal History Of The Northeast. Winslow plans to write the screenplay, and Shane Salerno will produce through The Story Factory. Winslow will write the screenplay.

This comes as Winslow’s latest novel The Force — an international bestseller about corrupt New York City Police detectives — is being adapted by David Mamet for James Mangold to direct, and his massive Mexican drug cartels bestseller The Cartel is being prepped for Ridley Scott. Fox is behind both of those films.

Written by Tim White, Randall Richard and Wayne Worcester and published last year by Globe Pequot Press, The Last Good Heist tells the story of how, on August 14, 1975, eight armed robbers took down a fur storage company in Providence. The fur would certainly fly in the aftermath because the thieves ignored the minks and instead ransacked 148 safe deposit boxes hidden in a secret back room. The boxes were stuffed with loot that belonged to the local mafia, and the thieves got away with duffel bags stuffed with cash, gold, silver, stamps, coins and jewelry. The haul was worth $30 million (about $120 million in today’s dollars). Winslow’s script will focus on the robbery, the police investigation, and the brutal fallout of a score that rocked the mob to its crooked core. Winslow grew up near where the crime took place and knows the streets.

White, Richard and Worchester are repped by David Vigliano and Thomas Flannery Jr at AGI Vigliano Literary. Winslow is repped by CAA, The Story Factory and attorney Richard Heller.