Amazon Studios, George Clooney & Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse Land ‘Hot Dog Money’; Marty Blazer Comes Clean On His Role In NCAA Hoops Scandal
07.11.2022 - 21:59
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Studios and George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse acquired in a six-against seven-figure deal screen rights to Hot Dog Money: Inside the Biggest Scandal in the History of College Sports. Book was written by Guy Lawson, whose Rolling Stone article “Arms and the Dudes” became the Todd Phillips’ movie War Dogs at Warner Bros, whose New York Times Magazine article “Ice Pack” has been adapted for Will Ferrell at Sony, his RS article Oxy-Gen is being adapted at MGM for Pete Davidson, and other true-crime reporting spread around town.
Lawson spent two years working secretly with Marty Blazer, the ex-manager whose cooperation as a confidential informant with the FBI resulted in a 2017 ESPN live broadcast with prosecutors from the Southern District of New York successfully bringing charges against managers, coaches and schools for corruption in the NCAA. It’s similar to what Nick Pileggi had with Henry Hill that led to Goodfellas; Blazer was forced to tell the truth if he wanted to avoid prison, after stealing $2 million from his NFL clients’ financial accounts. It also has parallels to The Wolf of Wall Street, with the FBI even using the same marina as was depicted in that film in a memorable scene between Leonardo DiCaprio and Kyle Chandler.
Now that the movie deal is in place, the book’s rep, Jody Hotchkiss of Hotchkiss, Daily & Associates, will take it out to the publishing community to make that deal. It is unclear what role Clooney might play as actor or director at this early juncture, but his Smokehouse has a first-look with Amazon, where it made The Tender Bar, the J.R. Moehringer memoir that Clooney directed. Kerry Foster and Heslov steered the deal and Michael Chong is the exec at Amazon
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