Vulture is reporting that a biopic of Aristotle Onassis, the Greek shipping magnate who died in 1975, is currently looking to be made by director Fernando Meirelles and screenwriter Bráulio Mantovani, the pair who respectively directed and wrote the brilliant Brazilian film City of God. The news alone that the pair are going to be working together on a new project is excellent, and I can’t wait for this project to reach our screens.

The film is said to be based on the book by Peter Evans, Nemesis: The True Story. Aristotle Onassis, Jackie O, and the Love Triangle That Brought Down The Kennedys. The book looks at the early relationship between Onassis and Jacqueline Kennedy, the widow of John F. Kennedy, who married Onassis in 1968. Evans looks at the effect this had on the Kennedy family and the feud it created between them and Onassis, in particular with Robert Kennedy, who banned him from trading with the U.S. Evans goes on to write that the feud eventually led to the Greek magnate financing the assassination of Kennedy. Many believe could have gone on to win the Democratic Party nomination for the Presidential election of 1968, which ultimately went on to be won by Richard Nixon months after Kennedy was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan just hours after winning the California primary.

Meirelles is envisioning the film, titled Onassis, as:

“a sort of Godfather, with Onassis at the centre.”

I don’t know about you, but I think that sounds brilliant. Biopics, in my opinion, tend to be either very well done or not particularly worth watching; I don’t think there’s a firm middle ground. And with Meirelles and Mantovani teaming up again after the magic they worked for City of God, I think we have every reason to expect Onassis will produce another movie of sheer brilliance from the pair.