Bidding War for McDonald’s Monopoly Scam Story Sets a Hollywood Record

According to Vulture, an all-out bidding war is underway between several major studios and several Hollywood’s A-list leading men for the “McDonald’s Monopoly Scam Story” movie. The story will be based on the Daily Beast story titled “McScam: How an Ex-Cop Rigged McDonald’s Monopoly Game and Stole Millions.” The bidding war included…

* Warner Bros. attempted to but it for a film to star Steve Carell (with Whiskey Tango Foxtrot co-directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra attached to direct).

Netflix bid at the behest of Robert Downey Jr. and Hangover filmmaker Todd Phillips.

* Universal attempted to buy it up as a star vehicle for Kevin Hart.

* Martin Scorsese expressed interest of Leonardo DiCaprio for the lead

* Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg separately pursued the project.

* Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment made a play for acquisition rights

In the end, 20th Century Fox and Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s production company Pearl Street Films bid an eye-watering $1 million for the 8,700-word online long online story to secure the rights, which is the highest price ever paid for an optioned article in Hollywood history. The plan is for Affleck to direct and Damon to star with Deadpool writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese to handle the script.