SEATTLE, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- A $1.3 million movie deal will help U.S. "Barefoot Bandit" Colton Harris-Moore pay back $1.4 million to his crime spree victims, he said through his lawyers.
"I did things that were not only a violation of law, but also of trust," Harris-Moore said in a statement released by his attorneys. "I can't undo what I did. I can only try to make things better."
He said he will not benefit financially from the 20th Century Fox Film Corp. motion picture, based on the book proposal "Taking Flight: The Hunt for a Young Outlaw" by Bob Friel.
"I am humbled to know I can now help the people I hurt, at least for the financial damage I caused them," Harris-Moore's statement said. "I have absolutely zero interest in profiting from any of this and I won't make a dime off it. It all goes to restitution. That's what I insisted on from the beginning, and the contract I signed guarantees it."
The deal covers movie and ancillary rights, and Harris-Moore will share details of his criminal escapades with Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, Seattle entertainment lawyer Lance Rosen told The (Everett, Wash.) Herald.
Harris-Moore, 20, gained international attention during a multi-state crime spree. He was charged with stealing five planes, more than a dozen cars, several boats and breaking into at least 100 homes and businesses around the U.S. and Canadian Pacific Northwest before being arrested July 11, 2010, in the Bahamas, where he'd fled.
He was deported to Miami two days later and transferred to SeaTac, Wash., outside Seattle, July 21.
He pleaded guilty to seven felony charges and is scheduled to be sentenced in October.
His Facebook fan club has more than 23,000 members, a United Press International review indicated.
