Zac Efron to play 'magazine investigator' in John McAfee biopic 'King of the Jungle'

Zac Efron has been ringed in for King of the Jungle. The movie is a biopic of unconventional tech entrepreneur John Mcafee and will be directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, the duo behind 2011's Crazy, Stupid, Love.

The movie will be produced under the banner of MadRiver Pictures and Epic Entertainment. Charlie Gogolak is producing the movie while Cinetic Media and CAA Media Finance are handling the financing and domestic rights of the biographical, reported 'The Hollywood Reporter'.

As per the production house, King of the Jungle will entail the life and times of rogue tech mogul McAfee, who is the founder figure of the Antivirus software, who after gaining all the fortunes in life, moved to the jungle in Central America, Belize.

There, he set up a compound of guns, sex and madness run in Colonel Kurtz (the insane army officer in Apocalypse Now) fashion. The flick is based on a true story published in Conde Nast's 'Wired' magazine by Joshua Davis.

The script of the movie is written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski who also wrote the Netflix drama 'Dolemite Is My Name'.

The story of the movie runs around Wired magazine investigator Ari Furman, played by Efron, who accepts what he thinks, is an ordinary assignment to interview McAfee.

Once Furman arrives in Belize, to interview McAfee, he finds himself pulled into McAfee's escalating paranoia (excessive anxiety or fear) and the latter also makes him a person of interest in in the murder of a neighbour.

The making of the movie has been in the works for several years and previously Seth Rogen and Michael Keaton was finalised for the roles. The shooting estimated to be started in early 2020.

On the Professional Front, Efron was last seen in the Netflix series 'Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile'.

Efron is also set to voice Fred Jones in 'Scoob', the Warner Bros. feature-length mated film based on the Scooby-Doo cartoon.

( With inputs from ANI )