We’re only a few months into 2020, but some things have already transfixed our popular culture. Among those is McMillions, HBO’s documentary series about a stranger-than-fiction fraud of the McDonald’s Monopoly game. If you thought the story sounded familiar prior to the documentary, it might be due to a long-gestating film adaptation, which would be directed by Ben Affleck and star Matt Damon. The film, which is titled McScam, has been in development since 2018, and it sounds like it’s still in the works all these years later. As Affleck recently told Collider, the film recently got a new draft, and there’s a chance of it happening, depending on everyone’s schedules and the nature of Disney recently buying out 20th Century Fox.
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“We’ve gotten a new draft,” Affleck explained. “That’s really good. Hollywood’s a weird place, because the person who was running the studio when they bought that script, just left that job. And the studio that was going to make it got bought by another studio. So there’s these moments where things sort themselves out, and you sort of see ‘Is this still a priority, or are they really interested in different kinds of movies?’ And I’m not sure whether or not, McScam, what kind of priority it is. We really like it. We’re still developing the script.”
“I’m about to go shoot my part in this Ridley Scott movie [The Last Duel] that I wrote with Matt Damon and Nicole Holofcener,” Affleck continued. “And so I finished [Deep Water] with Adrian Lyne, which was a lot of fun, and he’s a really interesting guy. It’s just so rewarding to work with directors that you can learn from and whose stories you got to get out. I mean, he’s telling stories about David Lean, you know what I mean? It’s incredible!”
While it’s understandable that McScam would evolve in the years since it was initially developed, some would almost argue that there’s a bigger audience for the film than before. McMillions has delighted and confused viewers in the time since it first debuted, and any adaptation that could capture the weirdness of “10 cream and five sugar” would definitely find a following. And although it was never confirmed who Damon would be playing in the film, we can’t help but picture him in FBI agent Doug Matthews’ gold suit.
Even if McScam doesn’t become a reality anytime soon, there still are a handful of projects that Affleck and Damon are partnered up for. Of course, there’s the aforementioned The Last Duel, which features both actors embodying a very bizarre and specific aesthetic. The pair have also been developing an adaptation of The Trade since 2015, which would tell the true story of two New York Yankee pitchers who traded families in the 1970s.
Do you hope McScam eventually hits theaters? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
