Catch Me If You Can is a 2002 American crime comedy-drama[3] film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks with Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Nathalie Baye, Amy Adams, and James Brolin in supporting roles.

The screenplay by Jeff Nathanson is based on the semi-autobiographical book of the same name by Frank Abagnale Jr., who claims that prior to his 19th birthday, he successfully performed cons worth millions of dollars by posing as a Pan American World Airways pilot, a Georgia doctor, and a Louisiana parish prosecutor.

[4][5][6] A movie version of Abagnale's book of the same name was contemplated soon after it was published in 1980 but began in earnest in 1997 when Spielberg's DreamWorks bought the film rights.

At the 75th Academy Awards, Christopher Walken and John Williams were nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Score,[7] respectively.

During his youth, he witnesses his father's many techniques for conning people, but Frank Sr.'s tax problems with the IRS eventually force the family to move from their house and into a small apartment.

One day, Frank discovers his mother is having an affair with Jack Barnes, his father's friend from the New Rochelle Rotary Club.

He finds him at a motel, but Frank tricks Carl into believing he is a Secret Service agent named Barry Allen.

One weekend, Frank prepares to impersonate a pilot again and is intercepted by Carl, who is willing to let him continue with his con, assuring him that no one is chasing him and that it's his choice.

Frank returns to work and discusses another fraud case with Carl, who asks him how he cheated on the Louisiana State Bar exam.

[10] According to Abagnale, producers Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin purchased the film rights after seeing him on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

[12] According to Daily Variety, executive producer Michel Shane purchased the film rights in 1990[13] for Paramount Pictures.

[14] By December 1997, Barry Kemp purchased the film rights from Shane, bringing the project to DreamWorks, with Jeff Nathanson writing the script.

[18][19] Verbinski cast James Gandolfini as Carl Hanratty, Ed Harris as Frank Abagnale Sr. and Chloë Sevigny as Brenda Strong.

[21][23] Spielberg, co-founder of DreamWorks, offered the job of director to Miloš Forman, and considered hiring Cameron Crowe.

During this negotiation period, Spielberg began to consider directing the film himself, eventually dropping projects such as Big Fish and Memoirs of a Geisha.

Spielberg "loved" her tape, and producer Walter F. Parkes commented that she was "as fresh and honest as anyone we'd seen", which was an important element in the role.

Steven Spielberg has told the screenplay writer (Jeff Nathanson) that he wants complete accuracy in the relationships and actual scams that I perpetrated.

I hope in the end the movie will be entertaining, exciting, funny and bring home an important message about family, childhood and divorce.

Federal court records associated with his conviction show he cashed only 10 personal checks with a Pan American Airlines logo, totaling less than $1,500.

"Some of my films have had to do with broken homes and people on the run from their sad pasts," Spielberg stated: But there are those strands that got me to say: you know, there's something also about me that I can say through the telling of this kind of lighthearted story.

'[36]I know that Hollywood has made a number of changes to the story, but I am honored that Steven Spielberg, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks participated in the making of the movie inspired by my life.

DreamWorks was careful to market the film as "inspired by a true story" to avoid controversy similar to that surrounding A Beautiful Mind (2001) and The Hurricane (1999), both of which deviated from history.

[52] Catch Me If You Can was released on December 25, 2002, earning slightly above $30 million in 3,225 theaters during its opening weekend, in second place behind The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

The site's critical consensus reads: "With help from a strong performance by Leonardo DiCaprio as real-life wunderkind con artist Frank Abagnale, Steven Spielberg crafts a film that's stylish, breezily entertaining, and surprisingly sweet.

[56] Roger Ebert heavily praised DiCaprio's performance, and concluded "This is not a major Spielberg film, although it is an effortlessly watchable one.

The colorful cinematography, smart performances and brisk tempo suggest a filmmaker subordinating every other impulse to the task of manufacturing pleasure.

"[58] Stephen Hunter believed DiCaprio shows "the range and ease and cleverness that Martin Scorsese so underutilized in Gangs of New York".

[59] James Berardinelli observed, "Catch Me if You Can never takes itself or its subjects too seriously, and contains more genuinely funny material than about 90% of the so-called 'comedies' found in multiplexes these days."

Berardinelli praised John Williams's film score, which he felt was "more intimate and jazzy than his usual material, evoking (intentionally) Henry Mancini".

"[61] A musical adaptation of the same name premiered at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, Washington in July 2009, starring Aaron Tveit and Norbert Leo Butz.