John McAfee sells TV and movie rights to his life story while detained; graphic novel also under way

Impact Future Media of Montreal claims to have secured "the exclusive IP rights" to the story of anti-virus pioneer and noted crazy person John McAfee, who was arrested in Guatemala and is wanted in Belize over the apparent murder of his neighbor.

The Hollywood Reporter has more:

Honolulu-based Brian Fitzgerald, who co-founded the TV production shingle with CEO Francois Garcia, based in Montreal, said he secured the exclusive IP rights to the embattled tech guru’s story.

“[McAfee] trusts that we will honor his life story in an honest and truthful manner,” Fitzgerald told The Hollywood Reporter in an email statement Monday. The TV producer is looking for investors and production partners for the project, tentatively titled Running in the Background: The True Story of John McAfee.

THR reports that the Canada-based firm connected with McAfee through Chad Essley, the founder of Cartoon Monkey Studio, whom it also represents. Essley is said to be "McAfee’s official cartoonist," and the guy who runs whoismcafee.com. A sample is below.

In an earlier post (and tweet), I asked what actor might best portray McAfee in the inevitable film or TV movie, which now seems closer to becoming reality. Many of you replied with superb suggestions back then. Your ideas are again welcome in the comments for this post!

• [Brainspore]

  IANAL, but couldn’t a TV or movie studio make an unauthorized biopic anyway? His life and accomplishments are a matter of historical fact. As long as movie studios don’t base a film on his personal memoirs or other copyrighted work I think they’re good to go.

  Either that, or the folks who made “Downfall” probably owe the Hitler estate a hefty chunk of change. (Godwin’d!)

• [itsgene]

  Who else could it be but Mel Gibson?

• [Will Bueche]

  @Brainspore – Probably no studio would take the risk of defaming a living person. There is no defamation of dead people (in US law anyway, I don’t know about other countries) so if he was deceased it would indeed be easier to make an unauthorized biopic. I seem to recall that if he is found guilty of murder, he isn’t entitled to profit from his crime, so his entire effort to sell his life story rights might be for naught. Sure he may get a paycheck now, but he’ll have to give it all back to his victim’s family if he is found guilty, right? Re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Son_of_Sam_law

  • [Brainspore]

    There have been plenty of unauthorized made-for-TV biopics about living public figures. O.J. Simpson, Martha Stewart, and Arnold Schwartzenegger (among others) all got the low-budget-movie treatment at one time or another. Granted, getting permission first is a good way to reduce the risk of being successfully sued for defamation.

• [Ramone]

  Adrien Brody. Wth a lot of cosmetic work to make him look about 20 years older.

• [Xof]

  Great idea; the victim restitution fund can use the contribution.

• [PhosPhorious]

  With a sense of existential gloom and bone chilling humility I realize  that I will never have an “official cartoonist.”

  What the hell have I done with my life?

• [jimh]

  It HAS to be Callum Keith Rennie, who you might remember as Lew Ashby on Californication.
  He’s perfect for it.
  http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0719678/

• [Ben Gleason]

  Tommy Gunn. He’s a dead ringer…