©Photo by Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
A documentary is already in the works about Luigi Mangione, the gunman who is being charged with murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a street in New York City on December 4. Mangione, the scion of a prominent Baltimore family, was the subject of a nationwide manhunt in the days following the shooting. He was arrested at a McDonald’s fast-food restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania and may soon be extradited back to New York.
The film is being developed by Anonymous Content and Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions. An earlier film by Gibney, Taxi to the Dark Side, won an Oscar for Best Documentary in 2008. Two other films of his are now in production: one about Elon Musk and another based on Salman Rushdie’s memoir Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder. Gibney also recently released The Bibi Files, which looked into the corruption charges levied against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The producers explained in an announcement their motivations in making the documentary: “From the crime’s seemingly meticulous execution to the alleged killer’s manifesto and his Ivy League background to the public’s unapologetic apathy towards the victim, the investigative deep dive will ask how killers are created, what this killing says about our society and the values we place on who lives and who dies.”
Luigi Mangione is being hailed as a folk hero in some circles for the way in which the slaying is calling attention to flaws in the US health-care system. The 26-year-old Mangione was reportedly carrying a manifesto that referenced another documentary, Michael Moore’s 2007 film Sicko, that also lambasted the insurance industry.
Mangione, who was reportedly suffering from debilitating back pain, was thought to have been acting to protest the widespread denial of insurance claims, especially by United HealthCare, which has a reputation of rejecting twice as many claims as the industry average.
No further details were reported about who would direct the film, or when it might be released.
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