‘The Jewel Thief’ Director Says Gerald Blanchard’s Crimes Were ‘Mind-Boggling’
“The Jewel Thief” follows the exploits of lifelong criminal Gerald Blanchard, who graduated from ripping off his local Radio Shacks in the ’80s — he once cleaned out an entire store — to stealing the Sis Star, a famous crown jewel, in Austria.
And perhaps even more amazing, Blanchard documented his own crimes every step of the way, giving director Landon Van Soest ample material to craft this eye-opening doc, which premiered this week on Hulu.
“It’s a gift as a filmmaker to have so much to work with,” Van Soest told TheWrap when he sat down to discuss this stranger-than-fiction tale of one man who took pride in outwitting banks and security systems and baffling police around the world.
Also Read:
‘When the LAPD Blows Up Your Neighborhood’ Wins TheWrap’s ShortList Film Festival Industry Award
TheWrap: It’s incredible that he documented just about everything
How did you first hear about him and decide you wanted to make this documentary?
Landon Van Soest: I was hooked very quickly, just by the juiciness of the story, this impossible heist in Austria and stealing these crown jewels from a castle. It sounds like a fairy tale. And then I Googled him and realized how deep this story went, that it was not just that one heist, that this was a lifelong quest to outdo his latest escapade. There is just so much story there that makes you salivate.
And he videotaped himself committing many of these crimes.
I know, what are the odds, right? He just had this bizarre compulsion to keep track of everything. He built this impossible persona for himself. He was filming it all along the way. There were hundreds of hours of wiretaps of him detailing what he was doing, just all of this material.
Did you have to convince him or was he eager to do this?
I never felt like I had to convince him. The story was out there, there was so much interest that it was hard for me to navigate. I’m a very small fish. Oprah was trying to get him and the Hollywood studios were trying to secure his life rights and everything else. So it was hard for me to get my foot in the door. But once I finally met him, and had that opening, he was very eager to tell his story. I think he’s very proud of what he did. And I think he relishes in that recognition.
At one point, it’s mentioned that there was going to be a feature film starring Zac Efron and that did not happen. When I was watching the film, I was thinking of Evan Peters if this ever becomes a feature. Who would you cast?
I always thought Jeremy Strong would be great.
Oh yeah, that’s the pitch right there. Do you think he would have achieved this level of fame without stealing the Sisi Star?
I doubt it. That was really my entry point. It’s amazing to me that he’s not better known than he is, just the complexity and the ingenuity of the crimes that he was pulling off. They’re mind-boggling. And to have visual evidence and firsthand accounts of a lot of these things that he was doing. It is bewildering that he was able to do this stuff and get away with it, for so long, and especially, with these equally obsessive police officers who are chasing him around the globe.
Also Read:
ABC News to Explore Life and Meteoric Rise of Country Phenom Jelly Roll (Exclusive)
They did seem to develop an almost fond relationship with him. They said they knew him better than their wives after listening to all the wiretaps.
Absolutely. I think there was a bit of a morbid fascination on their part. Mitch McCormick, one of the Winnipeg Police Officers, said that he really felt like they were opposite sides of the same coin. Blanchard had a true obsession, and a compulsion to try to beat the system, to try to show up the authority and they had an equal and opposite obsession in trying to track him down and trying to bring him to justice. They very much acknowledge that it’s a synergistic relationship, that one can’t respond without the other. And, where in real life do you ever find that? I was always hoping that I could get all of them together on camera. They remain in touch, they remain friendly. I think they’re equally amazed and bewildered by what he was able to accomplish.
Yes, it was a career-making case for both of them as well. And when they recognized that, they were not about to let go.
Absolutely. Shortly after this, they both retired from the police force and went on a speaking tour, to various police forces and security companies and lectured on the ways that Blanchard had been able to beat all of these systems and find workarounds, and build backdoors for himself, sometimes literally. They made a whole separate career based on this case.It certainly made a huge impact on all three of their lives.
And the fact that he did videotape everything, there’s all this great footage of ’80s malls and Radio Shacks. So that’s a fun nostalgia trip.
One-hundred percent. It’s so fun to be transported back to that and just see this pompous teenager showing off and trying to impress his friends. I knew kids like that, at that age, who grew up in the “Jackass” days. I would make comparisons to those guys just showing off and seeing how far they could push the envelope.
So what’s he doing now? There’s a footnote that he got arrested again, and I also saw some articles that he was going to become a security consultant. Did that happen?
There was a lot of talk about him being a consultant. And I don’t think that that ever materialized. He’s living a relatively quiet life now. And I think that’s a very open question about exactly how that’s the case. Whether there are things going on that he’s not fessing up to, he’s adamant that he put all of that behind him that he’s content, to have all of that be in the past. So so I think that that’s an open question.
Also Read:
Hulu Documentary Execs Say ‘Entertainment’ Isn’t a ‘Bad Word': ‘We Have to Get People to Listen’
