Richard Linklater to direct Robert Downey Jr. in a film based on a podcast

It's about a real life charlatan who scammed his way to a fortune with fake medicine

Artwork for the Reply All podcast

Richard Linklater is best known for his high school/coming of age movies Boyhood, Dazed and Confused and Everybody Wants Some!! and romantic trilogy Before, but his next film will see him back in the vein of con man picture Bernie.

He is attached to direct an adaptation of the ‘Man of the People’ episode of the Reply All podcast, which will star Robert Downey Jr. and his being produced by Team Downey Productions with Annapurna.

Reply All focuses on how people shape technology and how it shapes people, with the episode in question (which you can listed to here) getting the following synopsis from Deadline:

‘The podcast tells the true story of charlatan Dr. John Brinkley who scams his way to fame and fortune using fake medicine, populism, and the newest technology of the time: radio. As Brinkley’s fame grows, he gets the attention of Dr. Morris Fishbein, editor of the American Medical Association who begins a decade long quest to take him down.’

Downey Jr and Linklater moved fast with the film, as the episode only aired on 17 January.

It doesn’t yet have a title, although 'Man of the People' has a nice ring to it.