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Better Call Saul co-creator and producer Peter Gould is preparing to tackle a different type of rogue. Gould is currently developing an as-yet-untitled HBO movie about hedge fund fraud and the secret forces that control the world’s banks, according to Variety.
The HBO Films project focuses on Bayou Hedge Fund manager Samuel Israel III, famous for faking his own death after being convicted in a $450 million Ponzi scheme. The failed fake out not only resulted in an international manhunt, but set a new standard for creativity in suicide notes. (He left the words “Suicide Is Painless,” a.k.a. the theme song from M*A*S*H, scrawled in the dust on his SUV.)
HBO has tapped Gould to write, direct, and executive produce the movie, based on Guy Lawson’s 2012 nonfiction book Octopus: Sam Israel, The Secret Market And Wall Street’s Wildest Con. (Gould also wrote the 2011 HBO movie Too Big To Fail, based on the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the resulting global financial crisis.) In the financial thriller, Gould’s crew of presumably morally bankrupt Wall Street types will plan audacious acts of hedge-fund fraud while hunting “the Octopus,” the mythical secret market that controls the world’s financial system.