Mandatory Credit: Photo by Michael Buckner/Variety/Shutterstock (10303190ch)
Ben Stiller
'Variety TV Summit', Inside, 1 Hotel West Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA - 12 Jun 2019
On the feature film directing front Ben Stiller has been quiet since the failure of 2016’s Zoolander 2 earned a paltry $56m worldwide despite its all star cast. Well now we have news that ben Stiller IS Bag Man or at least he is going to be returning to feature film directing with his new film Bag Man a true-life drama from Focus Features and based on, of all things, a Peabody-winning podcast by Rachel Maddow.
The story of Bag Man will focus on Spiro T. Agnew vice President to Richard Nixon. Nixon resigned in shame after Watergate and Agnew was just as bad if this is anything to go by as it appears he ran a bribery and extortion ring in the Presidential confines of the office for many years. This all came to light at the height of Watergate, when three young federal prosecutors discovered his shady and frankly corrupt dealings. But Agnew was having none of it alleging that the investigation was little more than a ‘witch hunt’ against him and he went to some extreme lengths to obstruct justice. Maddow’s podcast examined in detail Agnew’s continual efforts to cover it all up as well as the shocking backroom deals that he set up in his efforts to keep himself out of prison.
Agnew was suspected of criminal conspiracy, bribery, extortion and tax fraud and no end of kick backs pleading his innocence until he eventually owned up to a single count of tax evasion and resigned from office – something which today’s politician are reluctant to do regardless of what they do. Agnew died in 1996 and its not known whether Stiller will play the role or even appear in Bag Man
The Bag Man script has been penned by Adam Perlman along with with Stiller and Mike Yarvitz.
