Documentary makers swoop on Luigi Mangione story
By Kayla Olaya
Two separate documentaries about Luigi Mangione, accused of killing the UnitedHealthcare chief Brian Thompson, are underway.
Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney and entertainment company Anonymous Content revealed on Tuesday morning they will join forces to turn the story of the fatal shooting on a Manhattan street into a documentary.
Luigi Mangione is already becoming the subject of a new documentary, before his trial date is announced. Credit: AP
Hours later, industry publication Variety reported that Emmy nominee Stephen Robert Morse, who produced Amanda Knox for Netflix, was also starting work on a project about the shooting that occurred on December 4.
Police allege Mangione shot Thompson on a busy Manhattan street, before the executive was to attend an investor conference. Mangione, 26, was arrested on December 9 in Altoona, Pennsylvania after a five-day manhunt, allegedly carrying a manifesto decrying the healthcare industry and a notebook discussing the targeted killing of a CEO.
Police believe Mangione’s motive was animosity towards the health insurance industry and corporate America. His Reddit comments indicated he had been struggling for years with increasingly debilitating back pain.
Mangione was valedictorian at a prestigious US prep school and a computer science graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s acclaimed engineering program.
The documentary is to explore what makes a killer, what values make society care for who lives or dies. Credit: Facebook
Gibney’s documentary will explore how the killing sparked national conversations about Americans’ frustration with health insurers, the companies’ denial of claims and care, as well as rising costs. It will also examine the question of what makes a killer, and what this incident says about the values placed on who lives and who dies. Mangione has retained a defence lawyer and has not yet been indicted.
Filmmaker Michael Moore, who made the 2007 documentary Sicko, which was critical of the US healthcare system, was allegedly named in Mangione’s manifesto.
“Some people have stepped forward to condemn this anger,” wrote Moore to his Substack in response. “I am not one of them.”
“The anger is 1000 per cent justified. It is long overdue for the media to cover it. It is not new. It has been boiling. And I’m not going to tamp it down or ask people to shut up. I want to pour gasoline on that anger.”
“Some people have stepped forward to condemn this anger. I am not one of them”: Filmmaker Michael Moore.Credit: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Gibney has previously won an Academy Award for best documentary feature for his 2007 film Taxi to the Dark Side, which examined the US military’s use of torture during the War on Terror in Afghanistan. His company, Jigsaw Productions, has just released The Bibi Files, about Benjamin Netanyahu.
No estimated release dates for the documentaries have been announced.