Having won an Oscar last year for based-on-true-life tale Dallas Buyer’s Club, Matthew McConaughey has been seeking several reality-spawned stories for some of his follow-up films. He’s now attached to The Billionaire’s Vinegar for Sony and Will Smith’s Overbook company.
Based on Benjamin Wallace’s book – full title The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery Of The World’s Most Expensive Bottle Of Wine – the eventual film will unspool a tale set in 1985 when a member of the wealthy Forbes family shelled out $156,000 at auction house Christie’s in London for what they thought was a bottle of 1787 Château Lafite Bordeaux wine, supposedly part of a cache once owned by former US President Thomas Jefferson. But though billionaire Bill Koch originally bought the cache for $500,000, he later became suspicious and paid double that to have the bottles checked and discovered they were big ol’ fakes. He sued Hardy Rodenstock, a music manager and wine dealer who originally unearthed the bottles.
What role McConaughey has his eye on remains to be revealed. The project is still in its infancy, despite several years of development, and will likely go through more writers before finding a director. The actor has most recently worked on Gus Van Sant’s Sea Of Trees and is shooting Gary Ross’ real-life saga The Free State Of Jones. He has several other projects on his potential to-do list, with Stephen Gaghan’s Gold next up and running drama biopic Born To Run also looking to score his services.