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One of the most expensive court cases in recent memory is set to hit big screens in the near future, as the movie adaption of a non-fiction book chronicling the infamous lawsuit filed by WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan against Gawker Media already has some big names attached to it. According to Deadline, Academy Award-nominated director Gus Van Sant is reportedly in talks to helm the feature titled "Killing Gawker," with the Artists Equity studio set to produce the movie. Artists Equity was founded in 2022 by Hollywood megastars Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who worked with Van Sant on the critically acclaimed 1997 feature "Good Will Hunting" that earned Van Sant his first Oscar nomination for Best Director, with his second coming for his work on the film "Milk" starring Sean Penn.
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The movie is based on Ryan Holliday's book "Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue," which concerned the lawsuit originally filed in 2013 by Hogan seeking damages from Gawker Media and its founder Nick Denton for publishing portions of a sex tape Hogan had made in 2012 with Heather Clem, the estranged wife of Hogan's friend Bubba The Love Sponge. Hogan would win the case in 2016 and be awarded a total of $140 Million in damages. PWInsider previously reported that Affleck and Damon themselves may play Hogan and Thiel respectively.
However, Hogan would only receive a portion of his money, as Gawker and Denton both filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2016 after revealing they couldn't afford to pay the $140 Million. Both parties would eventually settle the dispute out of court, with Hogan receiving a total of $31 Million, and the initial article and clips of the tape being removed from Gawker's website.
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