EXCLUSIVE: Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson and Archie Gips’ production company Unrealistic Ideas has taken the rights to bestselling author Mark Shaw’s non-fiction book, Collateral Damage: The Mysterious Deaths of Marilyn Monroe, Dorothy Kilgallen and the Ties That Bind Them to Robert Kennedy and the JFK Assassination. Unrealistic Ideas plans to develop the IP into a documentary feature film.
In his book, Shaw, a noted historian, former criminal defense attorney and TV network legal analyst connects the dots between the three 20th century icons for the first time, finally providing an intriguing, well-documented and credible account of how Monroe and Kilgallen were denied justice when they mysteriously died in the 1960s. Shaw uses fresh evidence garnered from more than 100 primary-source witnesses, while retrieving clues from secret government reports and a flawed autopsy to reveal that then Attorney General Robert Kennedy was the main suspect in orchestrating Marilyn Monroe’s death.
“If there had been no cover-up of RFK’s complicity in the murder of Marilyn in 1962 and he had been prosecuted based on compelling evidence at the time, the assassination of JFK by Bobby’s enemies would not have happened—changing the course of history and preventing the murder of journalist and TV personality Dorothy Kilgallen,” said Shaw. “I am thrilled my book and extensive research will be the bedrock of a riveting and jaw-dropping documentary film.”
Tom Muschamp is set to direct and edit the documentary, with his producing partner Mia Cortez, and will tell much of the story through Kilgallen’s voice, using her writing and Shaw’s research about her in his previous book, The Reporter Who Knew Too Much as source material, while using the latest technology to create explorable three-dimensional worlds from existing photographs and conflating archival film with modern-day reconstructions.
“I want to bring this incredible story to life for a new generation that might not know much about the time period,” said Muschamp. “I believe Mark Shaw’s compelling research could even trigger a reopening of the inquiry into Marilyn’s death.”
Among Wahlberg’s documentary fare, he served as EP on the HBO docu-series McMillions which received five Emmy nominations and as an EP on the Discovery special The Lost Lincoln.
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