If you’ve read Joshua Davis’ shocking “Wired” article, “John McAfee’s Last Stand,” which chronicles the strange places anti-virus software creator John McAfee’s life has gone in recent years, then you know that he’s not the sort of person you typically envision when you think of someone who used to program for NASA. Instead what you get is a vision of a tattooed gun nut whose recent life has involved alleged murders, isolated compounds in Belize, police conspiracies, accusations of narcotics trafficking, escapes to Guatemala, fake heart attacks, and an eventual deportation back to the United States. Sounds like an interesting story, right? The kind that could make for a good movie?
Yeah, you see where this is going. Variety has learned that Warner Bros. is in final negotiations to acquire the film rights to Davis’ article, and they’ve hired the Crazy, Stupid, Love team of John Requa and Glenn Ficarra to adapt it into a screenplay and direct it as a feature. Seeing as Requa and Ficarra have already done interesting work adapting somebody’s crazy real-life story into a feature film with 2009’s I Love You Phillip Morris, they’re likely to be a good fit to bring to life a character as eccentric and mysterious as McAfee.
With source material, writers, and directors in place, the question then becomes which of Hollywood’s leading men has what it takes to pull off the sun-weathered skin, tattoos, and thousand yard stare of McAfee. They’re going to have to find someone who can pull off looking like they’re in their 60s, but who can still project a manic vitality and a dangerous competence. What do you think? Is Liam Neeson too obvious a choice?
There’s probably not too much of a hurry to decide, so you can think on it for a while, because Requa and Ficarra won’t be able to start on this one until they finish Focus, that con man movie that Kristen Stewart is in and that Ben Affleck recently dropped out of. These two are starting to be pretty busy guys.