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Julia Roberts to star in scintillatingly-titled drama Train Man

The film is actually about the incredible life of Darius McCollum, arrested over 25 times for train-related crimes 

Clarisse Loughrey
Tuesday 15 March 2016 11:02 GMT
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We have officially run out of names for movies; at least, that's got to be the logical explanation as to why Julia Roberts' new movie is called Train Man.

The courtroom drama sees Roberts play the defense lawyer of Darius McCollum, the criminal-turned-internet-sensation whose fixation on trains led him to impersonate NYC Transit Authority officers on multiple occasions so that he could drive their trains.

Diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, McCollum was arrested more than 25 times for related crimes; Roberts would play his most recent lawyer, with his life from age 15 onwards told through a series of flashbacks.

Considering Roberts is once more entering the territory of real-life folk heroes, 16 years after Erin Brockovich; you wonder why they didn't just call this movie Erin Brockovich 2 and cash-in on that franchise familiarity, with Variety stating those who have read the script describe it as a similarly ambitious role.

The saddest part of it is that the name's usage means we probably now won't get that half-man, half-train Avengers reject movie we were all hoping for, or that much-needed biopic of Richard Trevithick, inventor of the steam locomotive.

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