Ladies and gentlemen, we’re already getting a Luigi Mangione documentary

Given the sensational details of the case and the internet’s general thirst for its subject, it was only a matter of time before Luigi Mangione got the Hollywood documentary treatment. 

Now, that prediction has become a reality, following news that the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson by Mangione, who has been charged with the murder but has yet to stand trial, will be chronicled in an upcoming documentary produced by Anonymous Content and Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions. Gibney is a highly awarded documentarian, whose film Taxi to the Dark Side won an Oscar back in 2008. Anonymous Content, meanwhile, is the company behind films like Boy Erased, Spotlight, and Winter’s Bone. 

It’s said that the upcoming documentary will comprehensively cover the case, from Thompson’s murder in broad daylight in New York City, to Mangione’s arrest in Pennsylvania in connection to the killing. The manifesto reportedly found in Mangione’s possession at the time of his arrest, as well as the public’s sympathy towards the alleged killer and apathy around the victim, are also said to be investigated in the film. More broadly, the untitled project will inspect what this killing says about society, and the values we place on who lives and who dies.

While no official logline has been revealed, the plot points of the documentary have featured on countless headlines since December 4, when Thompson was shot dead outside of a Hilton Hotel in Manhattan, hours before he was set to appear at a conference. What followed was a week-long manhunt for the suspect which culminated in Mangione’s arrest at a McDonald’s restaurant, where he was spotted and reported by a fellow customer. Mangione has become something of an internet sensation in the weeks since, with particular attention paid to his appearance, and his education as an Ivy League graduate.

The documentary was announced in the midst of production on Musk, a Gibney-produced documentary about the tech billionaire Elon Musk (duh). Just hours after news that a Mangione documentary was in the works, we learned that another separate film dedicated to the case was also greenlit, this time courtesy of documentarian Stephen Robert Morse. He is the filmmaker behind the Netflix documentary Amanda Knox, and his Mangione project — unconnected to Gibney’s — will explore the killing and its “important questions about vigilantism… and the inevitability of violence,” Morse said in a statement. 

While neither documentary has been given a release date, each passing day has spawned a flurry of new developments that could be included in each of the projects. In the past few weeks alone, we’ve learned that Michael Moore (also a documentarian) was name-dropped in Mangione’s manifesto, borne witness to fan-castings for Mangione on Dancing With The Stars, and heard about his current living conditions from inmates at SCI Huntingdon State Prison, where he is currently being detained. 

Oh, we’ve also seen resurfaced images of Mangione drinking beer (you can imagine the internet’s reaction), and sorted through countless theories about the case posited by amateur sleuths. While he’s now behind the eight ball in terms of announcing a Mangione screen project, I give it about six months before Ryan Murphy gets his hands on this case for a Netflix dramatization, since it has the showrunner’s name written all over it. I bet he’s already called Evan Peters.