The US network ABC will broadcast Madoff, its mini-series on the American con artist, on February 3 and 4, whereas subscribers to the premium US cable network HBO will have to wait until spring 2016 for its production, entitled The Wizard of Lies.
As with Steve Jobs and The Jungle Book, there are two dramas about Bernard Madoff in the works. ABC has taken the lead over the competition by announcing the broadcasting dates for its mini-series starring Richard Dreyfuss.
To tell this story, which was headline news all over the world in 2008, ABC has enlisted Richard Dreyfuss, made famous by his roles in Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. ABC will depict the people closest to Madoff, who was sentenced to 150 years in prison. Blythe Danner, who plays Ben Stiller's mother-in-law in the Meet the Parents movie franchise, will play Madoff's wife, Ruth, with whom he had two sons. Mark (Tom Lipinski), who was accused of being involved in the fraud, committed suicide in 2010, and Andrew (Danny Defarrari) died of cancer last year.
His brother Peter, who also got involved in the scam by falsifying the company's accounts, will be played by Peter Scolari. Eleanor Squillari, his secretary (Erin Cummings), and Frank DiPascali, his finance chief (Michael Rispoli), will also ne portrayed, as will Harry Markopolos (Frank Whaley), a financial analyst who brought the scandal to light. Markopolos was in contact with the SEC, the financial market watchdog in the US, as far back as 1999, as he was puzzled by the company's high profit margins.
Will Madoff be the poor man's version of the story?
The ABC mini-series will be an appetiser for the second version of the story told in HBO's The Wizard of Lies, a TV movie. The network, which is a past master in this art, has once again cast top-notch actors for its drama, including Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer as the Madoff couple.
This more Hollywoodian line-up was directed by Barry Levinson (Good Morning Vietman, Wag the Dog), who worked with HBO on the TV movie You Don't Know Jack starring Al Pacino. Samuel Baum, the creator of the series Lie to Me, has also been involved in the project, particularly the script, providing assistance to Diane Henriques, the author of the book The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust.
Because of its greater financial resources, HBO is likely to give its TV movie better promotion ahead of its broadcast next spring. If The Wizard of Lies is screened before the end of May, it could be eligible for the 2016 Emmy Awards. That could mean an Oscar battle between Richard Dreyfuss and Robert De Niro, both of whom have previously received an Oscar.
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 "Richard Dreyfuss and Blythe Danner will play the Madoff couple in the ABC drama.")
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