LOS ANGELES: Oscar-winning actor Matt Damon is all set to star as John R. Brinkley, a real-life 20th century doctor who conned his patients into thinking that he had discovered the cure to impotence, in the drama ‘Charlatan,’ according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The story revolves around a con man from Kansas who set up a medical practice in the 1920s and introduced an outlandish surgical method using goat glands to reverse impotence in local farmers.
He quickly turned into America’s richest and most famous surgeon.
Published in 2008, Pope Brock's Charlatan is a nonfiction book that continues to be relevant in an age of false medical claims and miracle cures.
Brian Koppelman and David Levien, the writing duo behind 'Ocean’s Thirteen', are adapting the screenplay.
The independent film is based on a best-selling 2008 non-fiction book, ‘Charlatan: America’s Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam,’ by Pope Brock.
Damon will produce the film along with K Period Media's Kimberly Steward.