In the grand tradition of Dumb Money and Cat Person, another story that the internet was more invested in than any regular people is getting a movie adaptation. This time it’s the wacky saga of now-former congressman George Santos, who was expelled from his position in the federal government… days ago. This comes from Deadline, which says HBO Films is developing an adaptation of Mark Chiusano’s The Fabuloist: The Lying, Hustling, Grifting, Stealing, And Very American Legend Of George Santos, a book that came out… days ago.
So this is all happening pretty fast, but this is a story worth striking while the iron’s hot. 2024 is an election year, and there will probably be way more wacky things happening than a congressman allegedly using campaign funds on OnlyFans and Botox, stealing credit card information from donors, lying about producing cursed musical Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, explaining that he meant “Jew-ish” when he said he came from a Jewish background (he claimed that his grandparents escaped the Nazis in World War II), and so many other things that the “False biographical statements” section on his Wikipedia page is longer than the time he actually spent in Congress (badum tsssh).
This HBO movie, which comes from Veep and Succession executive producer Frank Rich, will be a “forensic and darkly comic look at the crazy, unprecedented congressional race on Long Island that led to Santos being elected to Congress.” Deadline also describes it as a “Gatsby-esque journey of a man from nowhere who exploited the system, waged war on truth, and swindled one of the wealthiest districts in the country to achieve his American Dream”—which seems like a statement that gives Santos an enormous amount of credit.
Also, while everyone got a kick out of Santos allegedly scamming congress and Republican voters, let’s not forget that he is also facing real criminal charges over some of this. That means the story is still going on, and some relevant stuff might still end up happening.