Internet boyfriend and CEO killer Luigi Mangione already inspires two documentaries

Following the success of last year’s Mario movie, two documentaries are in the works about Luigi. Mangione, that is. Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions will assemble one of the Mangione documentaries. Over the last 20 years, Gibney has made some of the best documentaries about the decay of modern life, including Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room, Going Clear: Scientology And The Prison Of Belief, and The Inventor: Out For Blood In Silicon Valley. He also won an Oscar in 2007 for Taxi To The Dark Side, a probe into the murder of a taxi driver at a military base in Afghanistan. If he gets internet boyfriend Mangione inside Errol Morris’ Interrotron, Jigsaw could have a hit on its hands.

But wait, there’s more. Another documentary announced today comes from Amanda Knox director Stephen Robert Morse. That story was a little less cut-and-dry than a young man gunning down a healthcare CEO in broad daylight. Knox also didn’t benefit from the public being firmly on her side. There are some overlaps, particularly in the “young killer” department. Will Morse capture the Italian American heat that has resentful healthcare subscribers nationwide hitting the fainting couch?

“This case is complex and raises important questions about vigilantism, the devastating cost of a privatized healthcare system and the inevitability of violence when peaceful change is seen as impossible,” Morse told Variety. “My goal is to present a balanced exploration of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s assassination, showing all sides of the story while respecting the profound loss of life and its impact on everyone involved.”

And how could the true crime world turn down the opportunity to tell such a crowd-pleasing story? Luigi Mangione’s murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has many elements that audiences want: A hot lead, relatable villains, and catharsis. The most uncommon thing about the Mangione case is that people relate to his story and sympathize with his actions. It’s a rare story about consequences in a society seemingly free of them. True crime is typically predicated on a mystery. That’s not the case with Mangione. We know why he did it, and outside of the elite class that sees Mangione’s actions as threatening their heretofore guarded way of life, most seem to applaud his efforts.