After crafting the hermetically sealed, horrifying/hilarious original worlds of Dogtooth, The Lobster, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos took on a real story, making the Oscar-winning The Favourite. For his next project, Lanthimos will be moving to TV, but staying in the world of real stories. As reported by Deadline, Lanthimos will be directing and producing a miniseries through Searchlight TV about the true story of Clark Rockefeller. Or, should I say, “Clark Rockefeller.”
The Lanthimos miniseries will be an adaptation of Mark Seal‘s acclaimed nonfiction book The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Impostor. As you can likely ascertain from its subtitle, “Clark Rockefeller” is not a wealthy, charismatic member of the American Rockefeller dynasty. But that didn’t stop him from a shockingly effective impersonation. His is a story of deception, greed, fame, capitalism, and the inane insanities of human behavior. In other words — the perfect trampoline for Lanthimos to do some dang flips off of.
Image via Fox Searchlight
Clark Rockefeller’s story was originally in the works at Fox Searchlight to become a feature from director Pablo Trapero (The Clan) and star Benedict Cumberbatch, before changing directions into this miniseries iteration (No casting news yet, but hey, why not give Lanthimos muse Colin Farrell another go?). It has been previously adapted to TV in the Lifetime Original Movie Who Is Clark Rockefeller?, with Will & Grace‘s Eric McCormack starring as the title role. While Searchlight Television doesn’t have the same name recognition as, say, a Netflix or Apple yet, their initial projects are quite interesting. Beyond this project, they’re also working on The Dropout, starring Kate McKinnon as noted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes. Sounds like they’re carving out a nice little niche of “the underbelly of American fame and deception,” and it sounds like Lanthimos is gonna fit in nicely.
For more on our man Yorgos, check out our intel on another potential crime drama based on an acclaimed book. Plus, peep him chatting about directing with, like, every other great director. And here’s our deep dive on the mean, mean ending of The Favourite.
