{"id":26953,"date":"2025-11-06T19:24:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T19:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/26953\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T19:24:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T19:24:13","slug":"stars-of-friends-stranger-things-working-on-movie-about-erie-pizza-bomber-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/26953\/","title":{"rendered":"Stars of ‘Friends,’ ‘Stranger Things’ working on movie about Erie pizza bomber case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Erie’s infamous pizza bomber case<\/a> is the subject of a film being directed by a former “Friends” and “Scream” star.<\/p>\n

Courteney Cox is helming the true crime thriller “Evil Genius<\/a>,” inspired by a 2018 Netflix documentary series<\/a> of the same name about the plot that led to a 2003 bank robbery and the murder of pizza deliveryman Brian Wells. Patricia Arquette and David Harbour are set to star<\/a>, according to a Deadline story.<\/p>\n

The Deadline Hollywood site didn’t say what roles Arquette and Harbour would play, but the real-life cast of characters, in addition to Wells, included Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, Ken Barnes, William A. Rothstein, James Roden and Floyd A. Stockton Jr. The online story didn’t indicate when the movie, produced by Aggregate Films and August Night, would be released. IMDb.com describes the film as “in production” but didn’t indicate a release date.<\/p>\n

Real-life cast\"Brian<\/p>\n

Brian Wells is seen leaving the PNC bank in Summit Towne Centre south of Erie on Aug. 28, 2003. He is carrying a cane gun and wearing a collar bomb, which is protruding from under his shirt. This image was taken after he received money from the teller. In his mouth is a lollipop that he picked up while waiting to approach the teller. Wells later died when the collar bomb detonated.<\/p>\n

Wells died<\/a> Aug. 28, 2003, when a bomb, which had been locked around his neck before he robbed a PNC Bank branch, exploded as he was sitting in an upper Peach Street parking lot after being pulled over by state police in Summit Township.<\/p>\n

Rothstein<\/a>, Diehl-Armstrong’s former fianc\u00e9, made the call to the pizza shop where Wells worked that led the deliveryman to the site where the bomb was placed on him. Rothstein, said to have designed the bomb, died of cancer in 2004.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

This is a May 22, 2008, file photo of Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, proclaiming her innocence in the 2003 collar bomb death of Erie pizza deliveryman Brian Wells, as she is led to FBI offices in Erie following a mental competency hearing in federal court. She died in prison in 2017.<\/p>\n

Diehl-Armstrong pleaded guilty but mentally ill in 2005 after admitting she fatally shot boyfriend Roden in 2003 and then hid his body in a freezer at Rothstein’s house. She was sentenced to seven to 20 years in state prison. Roden was killed to prevent him from talking about the bank-robbery plot meant to raise money to pay someone to kill Diehl-Armstrong’s father, who later died of natural causes. Diehl-Armstrong was convicted in 2010 of being complicit in the bombing death of Wells and was sentenced in 2011 to life plus 30 years. She died in 2017<\/a> in a federal prison after suffering from breast cancer.<\/p>\n

Barnes, another plot participant and the fishing buddy Diehl-Armstrong wanted to kill her father, testified against her, was sentenced himself to 22\u00bd years on a plea deal and died in 2019<\/a> of cancer in a federal prison.<\/p>\n

Stockton, a Rothstein friend also involved in the plot, was never indicted and received immunity in exchange for his testimony against Diehl-Armstrong although he never actually testified due to health issues. He died in 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Movie participants\"Courteney<\/p>\n

Courteney Cox, shown at her Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony, is directing a film about the Erie pizza bomber case.<\/p>\n

While known for her roles in “Friends” on TV and the “Scream” films, Cox<\/a> has several directing credits already.<\/p>\n

Arquette<\/a> is an Oscar and Emmy award winner appearing in Hulu\u2019s limited series\u00a0“Murdaugh: Death in the Family<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Harbour<\/a>, a star of Netflix\u2019s\u00a0“Stranger Things,” had recent roles in “Marvel Zombies” and “Thunderbolts*.”<\/p>\n

The IMDb website had a longer “Evil Genius” cast list<\/a>, including Michael Chernus, Garrett Dillahunt, Ryan Eggold, Harlow Jane, Danielle Macdonald, Tom McCarthy, Owen Teague and Gregory Alan Williams.<\/p>\n

More about the pizza bomber case<\/p>\n

Now-retired FBI Special Agent Jerry Clark, who investigated the case, and\u00a0Erie Times-News reporter Ed Palattella<\/a>, wrote two books: “Mania and Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong: Inside the Mind of a Female Serial Killer<\/a>” and “Pizza Bomber: The Untold Story of America’s Most Shocking Bank Robbery<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

From 2023: As pizza bomber case turns 20, lead investigator reflects on Erie’s most bizarre crime<\/a><\/p>\n

Erie actor and director David Durst wrote “The Pizza Bomber Play: A Devoted Surrender<\/a>” based on central figures from the crime.<\/p>\n

Diehl-Armstrong was the focus of an episode of “Very Scary People”<\/a> that first aired in January on the\u00a0Investigation Discovery<\/a>\u00a0network and on the\u00a0HBO MAX<\/a>\u00a0streaming service.<\/p>\n

Dana Massing can be reached at dmassing@gannett.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie pizza bomber movie starring ‘Friends,’ ‘Stranger Things’ actors<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Erie’s infamous pizza bomber case is the subject of a film being directed by a former “Friends” and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[17660,17655,17654,136,138,137,17661,17656,17658,17653,17659,17662,17657],"class_list":["post-26953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-bank-robbery","tag-brian-wells","tag-david-harbour","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-floyd-a-stockton-jr","tag-james-roden","tag-ken-barnes","tag-patricia-arquette","tag-pizza-bomber","tag-rothstein","tag-william-a-rothstein"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}