If you’ve never heard of Darius McCollum, you soon will. His remarkable life (which doesn’t even sound real) is being made into a feature film, but for now, you can see his story at the Hot Docs festival in Off the Rails, a documentary by Adam Irving.
McCollum has been arrested over 30 times for impersonating a transit officer, stealing public transit vehicles (including many trains), and going on “joyrides” with buses. Since his teens, he’s been obsessed with trains and vehicles, and because of his Asperger’s syndrome, his obsession never abates. He knows every single detail about transit routes, where unused buses are stored and scores of minutia about trains. He is currently in jail, where he has spent a large portion of his life.
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Global News spoke to Irving, who’s probably one of few people on the planet with a tangible relationship with McCollum. At least 27 other directors have tried to make this movie, and failed. Irving told us how he got the project done (it wasn’t easy), why McCollum’s bigger problem might be his narcissism, and what’s going on with the feature film.
Global News: How did you even discover Darius’ story?
Adam Irving: I read about Darius on Wikipedia when I was reading a different Wikipedia article. It’s like reading about strawberries in Italy and somehow ending up on a page about civil war in Indonesia. It was that kind of thing. The first line I read about Darius, I was totally hooked. He’d been arrested 32 times for the same crime, but it’s a very quirky crime.
How did you approach him about the documentary?
When I discovered him, he was in jail, where he almost always is. He is now. I didn’t know how to look him up, since you can’t exactly email someone when they’re in prison. I noticed in all the information about him, this name — Jude Domski — kept repeating itself, a woman who wrote a play called Boy Steals Train, so I figured she must know how to get to him. I met with her and she was protective of Darius, wondering what I really wanted. I tried to convince her it was going to be a sympathetic, in-depth portrait of his life. This wasn’t me trying to make a quick buck to exploit him.
She gave me his info, let me know I was like the 28th director to approach him, and said Darius would get excited at first, and then realize that you’re probably not going to be able to do this. I said, “Absolutely not, I will not be the 29th filmmaker to try and not do it.”
So did you write to him?
I exchanged letters with Darius for six months … over 100 letters while he was in jail and I was in L.A. We built trust and a rapport, and he got out shortly thereafter. We signed a deal to make a documentary in March of 2013, and he was released in December. During that six-month period, that’s when I interviewed all the other people in the movie: his mother, his lawyer, his social worker, and I got a ton of beautiful New York City shots. Subway shots, too.
Did the MTA ever seriously consider him for a job?
No. He applied twice to work there, once at age 17 and once at age 18. He scored well but they knew who he was. He was arrested at 15 for driving a train and had a record.
What’s Darius like on a train?
He’s not like a child or anything, since he’s seen like a million trains. But what he will do is he’ll see a light switch or another train pass, and he’ll be like “That’s the R-142!” or “Adam, come over here, see that switch there? If you switch it to the left it switches from local tracks to the express side.” He loves showing off his expertise, it makes him feel like he has the inside scoop to stuff you and I don’t know about.
In the documentary, you make reference to his narcissism.
You could tell Darius that he’d be executed if he went near a train again, and he’d still find a way to do it. He loves the media attention. Honestly, I think if he was released from prison, two or three years pass, he’s beaten his addiction to trains, I still think he’d go back to doing it. He just misses being in the spotlight.
So someone has bought the movie rights to this film?
A couple years ago, I got a phone call from a Hollywood executive who used to be the development executive for Harvey Weinstein. He loves Darius’ story and wanted to do a fictional Hollywood movie about Darius, a big-budget movie with actors. A few weeks ago, I read in an industry paper that Julia Roberts had been cast as the lawyer in this movie, it’s called Train Man. It’s fully financed by Film Nation (the studio behind Toronto-shot Room). There’s no director or leading man yet, but they’re going through the usual suspects like Denzel Washington and Will Smith.
It’s great that they’re making a $20-million film about the exact same topic as my documentary. Darius’ story is that extraordinary.
Off the Rails is playing on Wed., May 4 at 9:15 p.m. at Scotiabank Theatre, Fri., May 6 at 1 p.m. at TIFF Bell Lightbox, Sat., May 7 at 9 p.m. at Scotiabank Theatre, and Sun., May 8 at 7:15 p.m. at Innis Town Hall. Check the Hot Docs site for full ticket and location information. Hot Docs runs from April 28 – May 8 in Toronto.
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