Once known as the King of the high seas for his role in the Pirates
The comedy, which is to be co-directed by Glenn Ficarra (Crazy, Stupid, Love, I Love You Phillip Morris) and John Requa (Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Crazy, Stupid, Love) comes from Conde Nast Entertainment, the same Conde Nast who published the story, “John McAfee’s Last Stand” in Wired. The other players also involved are Zaftig Films, MadRiver Pictures, and Epic Entertainment.
Screenwriting team Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (American Crime Story, The People Vs. Larry Flynt) penned the true story King of the Jungle which 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 cashed-in his fortune, left civilization, and moved to the jungle in Belize.
There, he set-up a “Colonel Kurtz-like compound of guns, sex and madness,” according to a statement. 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.”
Depp, who likes to take those roles which are slightly eccentric, has only recently signed up for Richard Says Goodbye where he will take the lead as Richard – a college professor who is given a life-changing diagnosis and then decides to throw all pretence and conventions to the wind and live his life as boldly and freely as possible. He smokes, drinks, has sex and insults anyone who annoys him.
The film will be produced by Condé Nast’s Dawn Ostroff and Jeremy Steckler; Zaftig’s Charlie Gogolak, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, and Epic’s Joshua Davis. MadRiver’s Marc Butan and Epic’s Joshuah Bearman will executive produce.