The best buddy duo Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are teaming up once again, after winning the bizarre true crime story of ex-cop Jerry Jacobson, who rigged the McDonald’s Monopoly game, reportedly stealing over $24 million dollars.
What’s truly wild about this news is that the story of Jacobson, written by The Daily Beast’s Jeff Maysh, was published just five days ago. Shortly after, a bidding war broke out between production companies craving to take on the article and bring it to the big screen. Per Deadline, The Pearl Street partners are producing the film, and Deadpool writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese are already set to pen the script. Fox beat out huge competitors including Universal, Warner Bros, and Netflix to win the rights. Affleck will be directing, while Damon takes on the leading role.
The Daily Beast article tells the story of Jacobson, who not only stole a massive amount of money from the fast food chain by selling fake pieces, but got involved in a ring of co-conspirators. The story has unraveled into a huge conspiracy that also involves “mobsters, a psychic, strip-club owners, drug traffickers, and a family of Mormons who falsely claimed to have won more than $24 million in cash and prizes.”
Affleck and Damon have worked together for more than two decades, and now have the opportunity to add this crazy crime story to their list of collaborations. The original story not only follows Jacobson, but the FBI agents working on the sting to bring “Uncle Jerry” in.
So far there’s no time schedule on when this film will begin production, or who else might star alongside Damon, but this should definitely be an interesting addition to Affleck’s directorial career. Considering the script is being taken over by Deadpool writers, we could assume this movie will have its fair share of dark humor.
