EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a hot one. Seth Rogen and Michael Keaton are newly aboard dark comedy King Of The Jungle, the movie based on the wild true story of rogue tech magnate John McAfee.
As we previously revealed, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (I Love You Phillip Morris) are directing from the script by feted writing duo Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (American Horror Story). The film is from Condé Nast Entertainment, Zaftig Films, MadRiver Pictures and Endurance Media, who have now come on board to co-finance, and Epic Entertainment. IMR International will be selling the movie at AFM next week. CAA Media Finance is repping domestic.
Based on the Wired magazine article John McAfee’s Last Stand, the film will tell the wild true story of rogue tech magnate McAfee (Keaton), 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. In the film, Wired magazine investigator Ari Furman (Rogen) 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, unhinged reality, and murder.
This was a hot project when it was announced in 2017 with Johnny Depp on board to star and it hasn’t lost its luster with Rogen and Keaton an intriguing one-two punch combining commercial and high-brow appeal.
The film will be produced by Jeremy Steckler of Condé Nast Entertainment, Zaftig’s Charlie Gogolak, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, MadRiver’s Marc Butan, Endurance’s Steve Richards, and Epic’s Joshua Davis.
The Disaster Artist, Superbad and Knocked Up star Rogen recently voiced Disney’s The Lion King reboot and starred opposite Charlize Theron in Lionsgate’s Flarsky. Keaton, who was Oscar-nominated for Birdman, and starred in the lauded Spotlight, will next be seen in Tim Burton’s Dumbo for Disney.
IMR’s enticing slate also includes Justin Kurzel’s Ruin, starring Margot Robbie and Matthias Schoenaerts; What is Life Worth starring Michael Keaton; Olivier Assayas’ Wasp Network starring Penélope Cruz, Pedro Pascal, Gael García Bernal and Edgar Ramírez; and John Michael McDonough’s The Forgiven.
Rogen is represented by UTA and Principal Entertainment LA. Keaton is represented by ICM Partners and Ziffren Brittenham.
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