Robert Downey Jr. And Richard Linklater Team Up For A Con-Man Movie

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Robert Downey Jr. has signed on to headline a new movie from Richard Linklater, a real-life con-man story to be based on an episode of the Reply All podcast. 

Here are the pertinent facts:

Annapurna Pictures and Team Downey are partnering for the untitled feature, which is based on the episode “Man of the People” from Gimlet Media’s Reply All podcast.

The podcast tells the true story of two doctors: Dr. John Brinkley, who scammed his way to fame and fortune using fake medicine, populism and radio, and Dr. Morris Fishbein, the editor of the journal of the America Medical Association who goes on a decade-long quest to take Brinkley down. 

I guess the first question is, will Downey be playing the con-man or the editor? THR's report doesn't specify, but come on: I think we can safely assume it's the former.

Secondly, I'd like to point out that this sounds like Linklater will be operating in Bernie mode (which is possibly the best Linklater mode), and I think Downey's brand of charm will blend very well with that mode, indeed. Consider me onboard.

Linklater's next film is Last Flag Flying (starring Bryan Cranston and Steve Carell), which is being released through Amazon. The Hollywood Reporter points out that he's also been tinkering with a remake of Where'd You Go, Bernadette, though it's not clear if he'll be tackling that before or after Untitled Con-Man Movie. Both movies are being produced by Annapurna, so I expect we'll get clarification from them sooner rather than later.

Stay tuned, folks.