The battle between Hulk Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, and Gawker is one for the history books when it comes to journalistic boundaries, and now there is a movie being made about the famous battle. Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue will be directed by Francis Lawrence, who directed the three final Hunger Games movies as well as Red Sparrow. A Netflix documentary about the case was made in 2015.
Gawker, a now defunct site that was well known for pushing journalistic boundaries, got in a lot of trouble when editor A.J. Daulerio published a two-minute clip showing Hogan having sex with the wife of popular on-air personality Bubba the Love Sponge. Gawker initially refused to take the video down. Hogan would eventually accuse Gawker of leaking a tape in which Hogan makes a series of racist comments. The WWE original was angry about the situation, but understands, in terms of business, why he was fired. The former wresting superstar, who recently became a reality star for VH1, is still is highly respected by The Rock and others who think he was too severely punished.
As Variety notes, the screenplay will be written by Charles Randolph, an Academy Award winner for his work on The Big Short. David A Numan, the CEO and Blackrock Productions partner, announced the project on Monday, adding that he is targeting an A-list cast to play Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, and former Gawker CEO Nick Denton. The film will be based on the recently-published book Conspiracy, written by Ryan Holiday.
Published by Penguin Random House, Conspiracy concentrates on how Silicon Valley billionaire investor and PayPal founder Peter Thiel brought Gawker down as what some call “revenge porn.” Thiel, who was outed by Gawker Media’s brother site Valleywag in 2007, would ultimately fund Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker Media and prevail.
It’s not known yet if Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue will tell what other people consider the other side of the story - a media outlet outing a gay man at a time when it could still seriously damage someone’s career. In fact, Gawker Media still continued to out allegedly gay men, and they were harshly criticized when they publicly shamed Condé Nast’s CFO for allegedly seeking a gay sugar daddy hookup on a trip to Chicago in 2016.
This new movie has the ability to shine a light on several social issues: freedom of speech, homophobia, adultery, media corruption, and so forth. One can only hope that Lawrence and Randolph will be responsible and cover all the events at least somewhat objectively. Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue could end up being one of the most important films this decade.
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Source: Variety
