Sumith Prasad
Jason Schwartzman has joined the cast of the biographical film ‘King of the Jungle.’ The shooting of the movie is slated to start in the Dominican Republic on an undisclosed date.
The project revolves around the WIRED journalist Ari Furman (Schwartzman), who accepts an invitation to interview the rogue tech magnate McAfee, creator of the McAfee antivirus software. McAfee moved to the jungle in Belize after leaving civilization and cashing in his fortune to set up a Colonel Kurtz-like compound of guns, sex, and madness. Although Furman initially thinks that interviewing McAfee is a run-of-the-mill assignment, his life turns around when he finds himself pulled into the latter’s escalating paranoia, unhinged reality, and murder.
Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski are directing the film. The duo also penned the movie based on ‘John McAfee’s Last Stand,’ written by WIRED’s Joshua Davis. The project marks Alexander and Karaszewski’s second feature as directors after making their debut with the 2000 film ‘Screwed,’ starring Norm MacDonald, Dave Chappelle, and Danny DeVito.
Alexander and Karaszewski are the creators of FX’s true crime anthology series ‘American Crime Story,’ whose first two seasons won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series in 2016 and 2018 respectively. Their recent credits as screenwriters include Netflix’s biographical comedy ‘Dolemite Is My Name’ and Tim Burton’s ‘Big Eyes.’
Schwartzman is joining the film after completing the production of Francis Ford Coppola’s science-fiction epic ‘Megalopolis’ and Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Queer,’ also starring Daniel Craig. His ‘Between the Temples’ is scheduled to premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The actor portrayed Lucky Flickerman in ‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes,’ Ron Heacock in ‘Quiz Lady,’ and Augie Steenbeck in Wes Anderson’s ‘Asteroid City.’ His recent credits as a voice artist include Gordon Goose/Gideon Graves in ‘Scott Pilgrim Takes Off,’ Spot in ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,’ and Roberto in ‘Digman!’
The Dominican Republic is an appealing and popular entertainment production destination. Several of last year’s major releases, including David Fincher’s thriller film ‘The Killer,’ ‘The Exorcist: Believer,’ and Netflix’s sports biopic ‘Nyad,’ were filmed in the country.
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