UPDATE: Gibney has some competition. American-British filmmaker Stephen Robert Morse (“Amanda Knox”) is also developing his own documentary on Mangione. Morse, a two-time Emmy nominee, might team up with Netflix for this one.
EARLIER: It was only a matter of time before Hollywood would pounce on this story. Expect more projects to get greenlit in the coming weeks.
Alex Gibney, one of the more acclaimed non-fiction filmmakers, has decided that it would be a good idea to have his next documentary be about Luigi Mangione. The murder trial hasn’t even started, and yet a movie is already being made about the guy.
Anonymous Content and Gibney’s Jigsaw Prods. are teaming up to develop and produce the documentary about the December 4th murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson.
Gibney, an Oscar winner, has not shied away from hot button topics in his career. His filmography includes “Going Clear,” “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” and “Taxi to the Dark Side.”
The most fascinating aspect of Mangione’s story is how the internet has grown to love the guy, seeing him as a cult hero for icing Thompson.
A four-day manhunt was feverishly underway in NYC before Mangione was finally arrested, during a misbegotten pitstop for a hash brown, at a Pennsylvania McDonalds. Mangione was carrying a manifesto that referenced, among other things, praise for Michael Moore’s 2007 documentary “Sicko.”
Moore, whose film was an indictment of the U.S. healthcare system, responded yesterday, refusing to condemn Mangione’s actions, instead opting to, in his own words, “pour fuel on the fire” by slamming the current health care system.
It’s unclear when Gibney’s Mangione documentary will be released.