Richard Linklater to direct Robert Downey Jr. for podcast adaptation based on a fake doctor scam

Image from The Hollywood Reporter

By Darian Scalamoni

            Another dream team for filmmaking is coming together for what can truly be an amazing project. According to Collider, Robert Downey Jr. will star in a currently untitled feature with Richard Linklater (Boyhood, Before Sunrise) directing. The movie will be based on an episode from the podcast Reply All titled “Man of the People”. This project has come together in quick fashion as this episode only aired on January 19^th of this year.

            The podcast episode tells the true story of fraudulent man by the name of Dr. John Brinkley who falsified his way to fame and fortune by using fake medicines, populism and radio. Dr. Morris Fishbein, an editor of the AMA had begun a decade long quest to take down Brinkley. This sounds like it can be an awesome project that will have stakes in it as well. It reminds me a bit of Catch Me if You Can as it challenges one to hold up a falsity for as long as he can until he’s caught and I think Downey Jr. could be terrific as Brinkley if that is in fact who he’s playing.

            Linklater last directed Everybody Wants Some!!, the spiritual sequel to his previous film, Dazed and Confused. He also just wrapped on the follow-up to The Last Detail titled Last Flag Flying starring Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell and Laurence Fishburne. He’s attached to direct the adaptation of Where’d You Go Bernadette? as well for Annapurna.

            Downey Jr. is currently filming Avengers: Infinity War and its untitled successor in Atlanta. This film would be his first non-Marvel role since 2014’s The Judge.