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Podcasts The Frame
Why true stories that are stranger than fiction are hot in Hollywood
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The Frame Tile
Episode 18753
Listen • 26:17
Why true stories that are stranger than fiction are hot in Hollywood

Producer David Klawans and writer Jeff Maysh find unusual real-life stories, turn them into long-form articles and pitch them to Hollywood; the Netflix docuseries "Wild Wild Country" tells the remarkable true story of the friction and violence that ensued when an Indian guru tried to create a massive utopia in Oregon in the 1980s.
SAN FRANCISCO - FEBRUARY 09: A sign stands outside of a McDonald's restaurant February 9, 2009 in San Francisco, California. Fast food chain restaurant McDonald's reported a 7.1 percent increase in same store sales for January as people look towards cheaper food alternatives in the weakening economy. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO - FEBRUARY 09: A sign stands outside of a McDonald's restaurant February 9, 2009 in San Francisco, California. Fast food chain restaurant McDonald's reported a 7.1 percent increase in same store sales for January as people look towards cheaper food alternatives in the weakening economy. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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Here's the lineup for today:

The McDonald's Monopoly scam story gets the Hollywood treatment

(Starts at :45)

Late last week a record deal was struck in Hollywood. Writer Jeff Maysh and producer David Klawans sold the rights to a story to Fox and Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's production company. There had been a frantic bidding war that also included Netflix with Robert Downey Jr. and Warner Brothers with Steve Carrell. The Daily Beast article tells the true story of how a former cop rigged a McDonald's Monopoly Game. It was posted on July 28th and by August 2nd the deal was done. It's not the first time that Klawans (who was an executive producer on "Argo"– a story he also found) teamed up with Maysh to write a story and sell it for the screen. The two talk with John Horn about how they find unusual real-life stories, turn them into long-form articles and pitch them to Hollywood.

'Wild Wild Country': The true story of a cult, mass poisonings and assassination attempts

(Starts at 13:27)

The Emmy-nominated Netflix docuseries "Wild Wild Country," tells the story of what happened when followers of the Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh built a compound in rural Oregon in the early 1980s. It consumed the local news in Oregon, but it's a story that not many people outside of the state knew – including filmmaking brothers MacLain and Chapman Way, who co-directed the series.