The trailer for The Wizard Of Lies might give you a sweet pang of nostalgia, and not just for smoking cigarettes in the back of your friend’s shitty Honda while Marilyn Manson played in the background. HBO Film’s latest prestige TV movie centers on the case of Bernie Madoff, the disgraced former stockbroker who pled guilty to fleecing his clients out of nearly $65 billion as part of a decades-long Ponzi scheme in 2009. Robert De Niro stars as Madoff, with Michelle Pfeiffer as his wife Ruth Madoff. Barry Levinson, who previously directed You Don’t Know Jack for the network, directs.
As you can see, there’s a lot to get wistful about here. De Niro and Levinson have both produced work of the highest caliber in the past, but recently both of their respective outputs have been, let’s say, variable. And don’t even get us started on a billionaire con man actually being held responsible for his actions, a principle that seems to get quainter by the day.
The Wizard Of Lies premieres on HBO in May.