After years of retreat on the feature-film front, Gus Van Sant premiered “Dead Man’s Wire,” a true-crime thriller, at the Venice Film Festival in September. This marked Van Sant’s first film in over seven years.
Van Sant recently hinted (via THR) that his next film would tackle the infamous Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced crypto mogul, co-founder and CEO of FTX, who once owned one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. His collapse began in late 2022 amid revelations of fraud and misuse of customer funds. In March 2024, he was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison.
In a new interview, “Masters of the Universe” star Nicholas Galitzine confirms he will star in Van Sant’s next film, set to shoot next year, although he does not say what the project might be. Is Galitzine playing Bankman-Fried?A few months ago, I learned the title of the biopic was “Explain it Like I’m Five.”
Galitzine is a British actor best known for starring in “Red, White & Royal Blue,” “Purple Hearts,” and “The Idea of You.” His latest role is as He-Man in the upcoming “Masters of the Universe.” He has a whopping four films currently in post-production, with his next shoot likely being Van Sant’s film.
Bankman-Fried and his eccentric “girlfriend,” Caroline Ellison defrauded hundreds, while also engaging in a lifestyle that often included video games, junk-food binging, and plenty of threesomes. This is the kind of story that was always destined for the big screen.
Last year, Van Sant directed six episodes of “Feud: Capote vs The Swans,” which critics responded to favorably. It marked a small but notable return to form for a filmmaker that’s been noticeably absent from the spotlight — until now.
The late ’80s and early 2000s, when he concocted his “death trilogy,” were Van Sant’s peak years, when he was arguably one of the most vital voices in American indie cinema. “Drugstore Cowboy,” “My Own Private Idaho,” and “Elephant” — which won the Palme d’Or in 2003 — are undeniable highlights.