Just days before his new moviePirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Talesopens around the world,Johnny Depphas found his next project. A new report reveals that the actor has signed on to play McAfee anti-virus company founder John McAfee in a new biopic entitledKing of the Jungle. IMR International will be handling foreign sales for the movie at the Cannes International Film Festival later this month.
Varietybroke the news about thisupcoming biopic, which is based on Condé Nast’s Wired magazine article “John McAfee’s Last Stand,” by Joshua Davis, and the film will be produced by Condé Nast Entertainment, Zaftig Films, MadRiver Pictures, and Epic Entertainment. This dark comedy will be directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa from an adapted script by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. It isn’t clear when production will take place, or how far along the screenplay is.
Based on the Wired article “John McAfee’s Last Stand,” the film tells the true story of tech magnate John McAfee, creator of the McAfee Antivirus software, who took his fortune and went off the grid in Belize, where he set up a “Colonel Kurtz-like compound of guns, sex and madness. In the film, a Wired magazine investigator “accepts what he thinks is a run-of-the-mill assignment to interview McAfee, but once he arrives in Belize, he finds himself pulled into McAfee’s escalating paranoia, slippery reality, and murder.”
Condé Nast’s Dawn Ostroff and Jeremy Steckler; Zaftig’s Charlie Gogolak,Glenn Ficarraand John Requa and Joshua Davis from Epic Entertainment. MadRiver’s Marc Butan and Epic’s Joshuah Bearman will executive produce. IMR’s is also bringing a number of other projects to Cannes, such asThe Sisters Brothers, directed by Jacques Audiard and starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Joaquin Phoenix,Freak Shift, directed by Ben Wheatley and starring Alicia Vikander, andDumplin, directed by Anne Fletcher and starring Jennifer Aniston. We’ll have to wait and see which buyers spark to these projects when the festival gets under way.
Johnny Depp will next be seen returning asCaptain Jack SparrowinPirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, hitting theaters on May 26. He is also playing Dr. Griffin inThe Invisible Man, Gellert Grindelwald inFantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2and Russell Poole inLAbyrinth. He is also playing Ratchett in the upcoming remakeMurder on the Orient Express, which hits theaters this fall. Hopefully we’ll have more onKing of the Junglesoon.
