Gus Van Sant adds to an increasingly interesting ensemble for Killing Gawker, that already features Matt Damon, plus Ben Affleck as Hulk Hogan.
Just yesterday we covered the story that Artists Equity, the production company run by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, would be adapting the non-fiction book titled Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue. Ryan Holiday penned the 2018 book which covers the legal drama that ensued when Hulk Hogan, the iconic former wrestler, sued the gossip website Gawker for publishing a sex tape of him that had come into Gawker’s possession.
The unfolding drama put Gawker out of business but also revealed some conspiratorial plotting behind the scenes. During his wrestling days, Hogan was alleged to be something of an arch-manipulator, using any means to keep himself top of the pile and Holiday’s book suggests that in the Gawker case, there were far bigger machinations happening beyond the courtroom.
For those reasons alone, the project sounds like an interesting one. Add in another collaboration between Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and Killing Gawker sounds like an intriguing proposition. When you then consider that Affleck is going to have to wear both a wig and a bald patch to emulate Hogan’s distinctive pate, well…
However, should that last detail not swing it for you, perhaps this one will. According to The Sneider Report, the project has seemingly tempted none other than Gus Van Sant back into filmmaking for the first time in six years. It will be Van Sant’s first collaboration with Damon and Affleck since 1997’s Good Will Hunting.
The Palme d’Or-winning director boasts an incredibly interesting filmography that has often pushed in directions that others would fear to tread. Elephant and Drugstore Cowboy remain critically-praised whilst his inventive reimagining of Shakespeare for 1992’s My Own Private Idaho laid the groundwork for a memorable decade that would include the excellent To Die For and the aforementioned Good Will Hunting. The latter, of course, was the film that would launch the successful careers of both Affleck and Damon. And who else would have dared to remake Psycho, especially in a shot for shot fashion as Van Sant famously did back in 1998?
The more we hear about this project, the more we like. It’s going to be some time before we see anything though, but thus far, everything is set up for something really interesting. We’ll bring you more on this one as we hear it.
