Let’s indulge these rumors that Ben Affleck will play Hulk Hogan in a Gawker movie

Uhh… is this fucking play about us? You may have heard the rumors that Ben Affleck, 0f (maybe) former Bennifer fame, is in talks to play Hulk Hogan in a film about the downfall of Gawker, the former parent site of Jezebel and Splinter and thus The A.V. Club’s relative through marriage. There’s a lot to process here, obviously. 

First, a little refresher on what the hell happened to Gawker back in the 2010s. In 2012, the website published a short clip from a sex tape created by WWE wrestler (and current RNC spokesman) Hulk Hogan. In response, Hogan launched a massive, $115 million suit with the backing of PayPal and Palantir founder (and current RNC spokesman) Peter Thiel, who was angry at the site for outing him in 2007. They won, and Gawker eventually dissolved. 

Now, according to a tip from PWInsider (via Consequence), Affleck and Matt Damon are eyeing the roles of Hogan and Thiel, respectively, in a screenplay called Killing Gawker that’s reportedly been floating around Hollywood for a while. The script was penned by Charles Randolph, who won an Oscar for The Big Short in 2016; it was adapted from Ryan Holiday’s 2018 book, Conspiracy: A True Story of Power, Sex, and a Billionaire’s Secret Plot to Destroy a Media Empire. All of this could mean nothing, as this is still very much in the rumor phase. 

Please bear with us, however, as we take a second to indulge these whispers. A film like this makes sense for Affleck and Damon’s production company, Artists Equity, which is clearly trying to ramp up production after the success of 2023’s Air. They currently have four films in the hopper, including The Instigators, which premieres on Apple TV+ this Friday, and the Cillian Murphy-starring Small Things Like These. What’s one more? Also, Hulk Hogan is apparently ripe for the biopic treatment right now. While he couldn’t “say it’s officially happening yet,” Chris Hemsworth recently acknowledged rumors that he was also working on a film about the wrestler with The Joker’s  Todd Phillips. The Gawker story was also turned into a Netflix documentary, Nobody Speak: Trials Of The Free Press, in 2017. But, honestly, it’s been a while since we’ve had a Spotlight or The Post, so this writer says go for it.