A function specializing in Hulk Hogan‘s authorized battle with Gawker Media is within the works from Ben Affleck and Matt Damon‘s manufacturing firm Artists Fairness, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
The shingle has acquired the screenplay for Killing Gawker from scribe Charles Randolph, who earned an Oscar for his work on 2015’s The Massive Brief. Killing Gawker adapts writer Ryan Vacation’s 2018 nonfiction e book Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker and the Anatomy of Intrigue.
Gus Van Sant — who beforehand directed Damon and Affleck in Good Will Searching from the pair’s Oscar-winning script — is in talks to helm Killing Gawker. Affleck has been circling the position of Hogan, in accordance with media experiences, though casting choices haven’t been finalized.
In November 2016, Gawker Media agreed to pay $31 million to Hogan, whose actual title is Terry Bollea, to settle the intercourse tape lawsuit filed by the famed wrestler over the corporate publishing an excerpt of the footage. The case surrounded a 2012 article that included parts of the video filmed six years prior, and it led to Gawker’s web site being shut down.
Peter Thiel, the billionaire tech entrepreneur who co-founded PayPal, helped finance Hogan’s lawsuit and is alleged to be a key character within the movie.
Affleck and Damon beforehand teamed on Amazon’s biographical movie Air that hailed from Artists Fairness. Affleck directed and co-starred within the 2023 title that featured Damon as Nike worker Sonny Vaccaro, who staked the struggling shoe firm’s future on establishing a cope with then-NBA rookie Michael Jordan.
Van Sant, who earned Oscar nominations for greatest director for Good Will Searching and Milk, most just lately helmed the 2018 Amazon film Don’t Fear, He Received’t Get Far on Foot that starred Joaquin Phoenix and Jonah Hill.