It would appear that a lot of people want Dave Franco to portray murder suspect Luigi Mangione on the big screen.
Mangione, aged 26, made international headlines in December when he allegedly shot and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside of a Manhattan hotel.
A manhunt was held after Mangione fled the scene, though he has since been charged with second degree murder, three counts of illegal weapons possession and forgery. He is currently being held in prison in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania and has been denied bail.
In the days that he was on the loose and since his arrest, Mangione became the subject of widespread attention online, with a cult-like following developing as people tried to understand the nature of his alleged crime. It also led to a wider conversation about the current state of the health insurance system. Mangione has also garnered his own pocket of fans, some campaigning for his freedom, while others praise his looks.
As a result of Mangione’s rise to infamy, the internet has begun fan-casting actors to portray the suspect in a hypothetical film. One name that is often brought up to play Mangione is Dave Franco.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter recently, it appears that it’s not just social media users who are campaigning for Franco to play Mangione on the big screen. When asked if anyone has compared Mangione to the actor, Franco’s wife Alison Brie quipped: “Anyone? Do you mean everyone?” Franco added: “I have never received more texts in my life about anything.”
He continued: “Anyone who has my phone number has reached out about it.” However, Brie and Franco were quick to clarify that “no official offers” have been made.
“I’ve never received more texts in my life about anything,” – #Together star Dave Franco on the flood of messages he’s received from people wanting him to play Luigi Mangione pic.twitter.com/s9A9pcPRJN
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) January 25, 2025
Talk of Franco’s potential casting as Luigi Mangione comes after two documentaries based on the murder suspect were announced in December. Stephen Robert Morse, known for his work on Netflix’s documentary Amanda Knox, is working on one that will focus on those directly involved in the murder, including Thompson’s family and Mangione himself. That production will also explore the controversial nature of private healthcare.
The other will come from the production companies Anonymous Content and Jigsaw Prods and the acclaimed director Alex Gibney, who has made documentaries about Scientology, WikiLeaks and Enron. That project will examine the wider context of the killing and how culture reacted to the events surrounding it.
On December 14, comedian Chris Rock made a joke about Thompson’s death in his Saturday Night Live (SNL) monologue. During his fourth stint as host, he touched on the internets reaction to Mangione. “Everybody’s fixated on how good-looking this guy looks,” he said. “If he looked like Jonah Hill, no one would care. They’d already given him the chair already.”
He continued: “But he actually killed a man, a man! A man with a family, a man with kids… I have real condolences for the Healthcare CEO…but you also gotta know, sometimes drug dealers get shot.”
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