A documentary about Luigi Mangione, the alleged killer of the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is reportedly already in the works.
The film is being put together by Oscar-winning Taxi to the Dark Side director Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions and Anonymous Content, who were behind the Oscar-winning journalism drama Spotlight and the Leonardo DiCaprio-starring The Revenant (both 2015).
Variety reports that the documentary will go beyond a retelling of the high-profile December 4 murder in Manhattan to examine “how killers are created, what this killing says about our society and the values we place on who lives and who dies.”
Gibney is also currently working on a film about tech mogul and Trump ally Elon Musk, and another documentary based on Salman Rushdie’s memoir Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder.
Over the weekend, Mangione retained Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a high-profile New York attorney, to defend him after he was accused of Thompson’s murder.
Mangione is facing a second-degree murder charge in New York as well as firearm charges in Pennsylvania.
The 26-year-old suspect has been held in a Pennsylvania jail since his arrest last Monday following a six-day manhunt.
Thomas Dickey, an attorney representing Mangione in Pennsylvania, has said that Mangione plans to contest his extradition to New York.
But Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said Friday there are “indications” he may waive his right to fight extradition.
“Indications are that the defendant may waive, but that waiver is not complete until a court proceeding, which my understanding from court officials in Pennsylvania cannot happen until Tuesday,” Bragg said.
The revelation comes as Mangione’s supporters continue to donate thousands of dollars for “defense funds,” with one committee raising almost $125,000 to pay for Mangione’s legal bills as of Monday morning.
Thompson’s murder has become the centre of a nationwide conversation about the healthcare insurance industry. On Sunday, Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator who has campaigned for a national healthcare system, said the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s shooting underscores people’s frustration with the industry.
Sanders, an Independent who caucuses with the Democrats, told Meet the Press host Kristen Welker:“What I think has happened in the last few months is that what you have seen rising up is people’s anger at a health insurance industry, which denies people the health care that they desperately need while they make billions and billions of dollars in profit.”
In a handwritten note police say they found when Mangione was arrested, the suspect allegedly wrote: “Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy.”
