Stars of ‘Friends,’ ‘Stranger Things’ working on movie about Erie pizza bomber case

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

Courteney Cox is helming the true crime thriller “Evil Genius,” inspired by a 2018 Netflix documentary series 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, according to a Deadline story.

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.

Real-life cast

Wells died 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.

Rothstein, Diehl-Armstrong’s former fiancé, 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.

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 in a federal prison after suffering from breast cancer.

Barnes, another plot participant and the fishing buddy Diehl-Armstrong wanted to kill her father, testified against her, was sentenced himself to 22½ years on a plea deal and died in 2019 of cancer in a federal prison.

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.

Movie participants

While known for her roles in “Friends” on TV and the “Scream” films, Cox has several directing credits already.

Arquette is an Oscar and Emmy award winner appearing in Hulu’s limited series “Murdaugh: Death in the Family.”

Harbour, a star of Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” had recent roles in “Marvel Zombies” and “Thunderbolts*.”

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

More about the pizza bomber case

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

Erie actor and director David Durst wrote “The Pizza Bomber Play: A Devoted Surrender” based on central figures from the crime.

Diehl-Armstrong was the focus of an episode of “Very Scary People” that first aired in January on the Investigation Discovery network and on the HBO MAX streaming service.