Janelle Monáe to Play Tanya Smith, Con Artist Behind $40 Million Heist, in ‘Never Saw Me Coming’ Movie Adaptation

variety.com:

Rebecca Rubin Senior Film and Media Reporter Universal Pictures has landed the rights to Tanya Smith’s memoir “Never Saw Me Coming: How I Outsmarted the FBI and the Entire Banking System — and Pocketed $40 Million.” Janelle Monáe is attached to star in the film adaptation, which she’ll also produce through her company Wondaland Pictures.

Smith, who will be involved in the movie as an executive producer, is the perpetually underestimated con-artist behind what’s been called “one of the single biggest threats to the entire United States banking system.” Described as a heist thriller that becomes “a powerful examination of systemic prejudice and economic inequality,” the stranger-than-fiction story follows Smith’s journey from teenage hacker to financial system mastermind.

By 18, she had already orchestrated a litany of heists, amassing millions of dollars while evading law enforcement in the process.

She was finally cornered by the FBI, though they allegedly “refused to believe a Black woman could be the architect of such sophisticated crimes,” according to the project’s official press release.