The bizarre 2004 “killdozer” incident that again proved real life is crazier than any movie is becoming an actual movie, Deadline reports.ADVERTISEMENT
If the phrase “killdozer” doesn’t immediately ring a bell, here’s a quick refresher: Back in 2004, a muffler shop owner named Marvin Heemeyer got so angry about a zoning dispute in his hometown of Granby, Colorado, that he decided to teach the city a lesson—by secretly building a homemade armored bulldozer in his garage and using it to obliterate the town hall and ex-mayor’s house on an angry rampage.
Heemeyer’s bulldozer, later nicknamed the “killdozer,” demolished a total of 13 buildings in Granby until it got stuck in the basement of a department store as he tried to mow through it. He committed suicide inside the vehicle before police could arrest him—the only person to die in the rampage—but it still reportedly took cops 12 hours to break into the killdozer and retrieve his body, since Heemeyer spent the last year and a half reinforcing the thing with layers upon layers of nearly impenetrable steel, concrete, and outfitting it with a few automatic weapons. Yes, all because the guy was pissed about the city’s zoning laws.
In the subsequent decade and a half, Heemeyer’s destructive drive has become the stuff of legend, with a few even heralding the guy as a folk hero who took on city hall or something, regardless of the fact that he was, as AV Club points out, a crazed, domestic terrorist. Now, it looks like we’ll finally get a chance to set the record straight on Heemeyer thanks to Tread, an upcoming documentary about the man and his armored machine.ADVERTISEMENT
According to Deadline, the upcoming doc will be directed by Paul Solet and produced by Doug Liman, who produced that Tom Cruise movie Live Die Repeat and one of the Bourne sequels, among others. The doc will recreate some of the scenes from the rampage and also feature interviews with people who knew Heemeyer in the time leading up to the killdozer incident. Heemeyer also recorded almost three hours of audio cassettes spelling out his motives, so it’s likely that’ll wind up in the doc as well.
“Marvin’s story is part wish fulfillment part cautionary tale,” Liman said in a statement announcing his attachment to the project. “He left behind a wake of unbelievable destruction and Paul Solet is the perfect director to bring this story to the screen.”
Read more: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3kjgkw/the-colorado-killdozer-rampage-is-finally-getting-its-own-movie-vgtrn
