Mitnick movie comes to the U.S.
Nearly six years after it was filmed, Hollywood's trouble-plagued movie version of the hunt for hacker Kevin Mitnick is headed for video stores in the U.S.
Originally titled "Takedown," then "Cybertraque," the film is set for a September 28th U.S. release on DVD with the new title, "Track Down."
The movie is from Miramax's horror and sci-fi label Dimension Films, and is based on the book "Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw -- By The Man Who Did It," authored by computer scientist Tsutomu Shimomura and New York Times reporter John Markoff.
Shimomura electronically tracked Mitnick to his Raleigh, North Carolina hideout in February, 1995, and sold the book and movie rights for an undisclosed sum amidst the storm of publicity following the fugitive hacker's arrest.
Early versions of the screenplay for the movie adaptation of Takedown cast Mitnick -- played by Scream star Skeet Ulrich -- as violent and potentially homicidal. In July, 1998, supporters of the then-imprisoned cyberpunk rallied against the film outside Miramax's New York City offices. Writers later revised the script, and shooting wrapped on the project in December, 1998.
