Remember when I said I wouldn't use the term McConaissance? Neither do I, there goes those memory issues again. Matthew McConaughey has just signed on to THE BILLIONAIRE'S VINEGAR, a film which looks to continue the aforementioned McConaissance.
The film is based off "The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine" by Benjamin Wallace, a non-fiction book which chronicles the true story of one of the largest scandals ever to hit the wine community. Music manager turned wine dealer Hardy Rodenstock came into possession of several bottles of wine which he claimed were owned by Thomas Jefferson. He then sold one of those bottles at auction in 1985 to Christopher Forbes for $156,000; which until recently was the most ever paid for a single botte of wine at auction. Billionaire Bill Koch also bought some of the bottles for $500,000 and would later spend twice that amount investigating both the wine's origins and Hardy Rodenstock himself.
If you had told me that I'd be so interested in a film about a wine scandal an hour ago I would have shook my head and disagreed with you politely. I'm a Canadian after all. This project had been in development for several years but now that Matthew McConaughey is on-board, I suspect things will start moving forward.
McConaughey will next be seen in Gus Van Sant's THE SEA OF TREES, a suicide drama about Japan's famous "suicide forest" which also stars Ken Watanabe and Naomi Watts. No release date yet, but we should expect to see it sometime in 2015.