The meteoric political rise of George Santos and the web of fabulist tales it was built on are getting a movie treatment. HBO Films has optioned the rights to Mark Chiusano’s new book The Fabulist: The Lying, Hustling, Grifting, Stealing, and Very American Legend of George Santos, which was published on November 28, 2023.
The news comes on the heels of Santos’ Washington D.C. career coming to a dramatic end yesterday when he was expelled from Congress for alleged ethics violations, including donor funds spent on racy subscription website OnlyFans and Botox treatments. He has denied the charges and has vowed to fight back.
The film, now in development, is described as a forensic and darkly comic look at the crazy, unprecedented congressional race on Long Island that led to Santos being elected to Congress. It comes from Frank Rich, who executive produced HBO’s Emmy-winning Washington DC satire Veep as well as the network’s Emmy-winning drama Succession.
If there was any movie that shouldn’t be made, it’s this one.
I dunno, have you heard all the things Santos has done? That’s gonna be an exciting movie!
Ugh, could we please not lionize this trash human?
Why do you believe that the team behind VEEP would be lionizing anybody?
For a con artist, any press is good press
Maybe, but at the same time if we all collectively ignore and forget about people like this then they can slowly chip away at that embarrassing branding and take advantage elsewhere. If we let talented comedians and creators tear them down, then Santos is working against the kind of image damage that sticks with people. At least more sticky than CSPAN or SNL. Facts won’t connect with people like art can, and I think it’s better for society to crown bad leaders with a legacy as a punchline instead of fading into another forgettable obscure Jeopardy question. If it’s lionizing then that’s only to the people that have made up their mind on him well before any of this came to light anyways.
Of course you’re right on this point.
So long as the VEEP crew shred this guy, I’m on board.
Fingers crossed the showrunner’s a wood chipper.
literally no one asked for this
Is Max really this desperate for content? I mean if you need a movie for people to watch, how about Batgirl?
They better make this movie and can it the hour before its supposed to air for tax purposes.
I will never understand how they came to the conclusion that distancing themselves from the HBO brand that has been built up over decades was a good idea.
Destroying brands is so 2023.
America, where pieces of shit become celebrities.
They should talk about making it, really hyping it up, then just never actually make it. It would be perfect for their subject.
Dear HBO, just to put it into terms you understand, the chances of me watching this are less than the chances of me rewatching Game of Thrones.
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After his collegiate volleyball career, and making his first million on Wall Street, but before he became a philanthropist charity genius, he went to seminary school and performed miracles in poor nations. He’s only one short of being sainted. The pope himself is a big fan.
Don’t look that stuff up, but he said it was all true.
It’s really inappropriate to question the integrity of a man who is clearly holding a baby.
This sounds like the man we need making spaceships, electric cars, and toxic social media platforms!
He’s fond of wearing sweaters under his suit jacket and sometimes , when you can’t see the tie he has on, it looks like he is wearing a white Clerical Collar.
Serious question - yesterday I watched a long deep dive down into this rabbit hole and - wow. I knew a lot of it already, but I learned some things too.
During his campaign(s), did whoever he was running against do oppo research? Couldn’t this have all been made public much sooner?
Apparently his opponent tried, but no one cared enough to actually run it until I guess they ran out of other things to talk about.
Ahh, okay. That sucks, but thanks!
Hopefully it’s better than White House Plumbers
Not sure about this.
