Filmmaker Gus Van Sant recently discussed the similarities between the Luigi Mangione case and the premise of his new thriller, Dead Man’s Wire. Van Sant is widely known for directing the 1997 feature Good Will Hunting, which garnered him an Oscar nod for Best Director.
Gus Van Sant reflects on Luigi Mangione’s connection to Dead Man’s Wire
Gus Van Sant spoke to IndieWire over Zoom about his new movie, Dead Man’s Wire, and its apparent connection to Luigi Mangione, the 27-year-old accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Dead Man’s Wire is a historical crime thriller that predominantly takes place in the ’70s and revolves around the real-life abduction of a mortgage banker by Tony Kiritsis.
Since Mangione’s arrest, he has become an idolized figure for certain sections of the population. According to Van Sant, the romanticization of such acts of vigilantism “is kind of a new thing for today’s generation.” The acclaimed filmmaker added, “[There are] extreme reactions to certain things, that I’m not necessarily able to understand, in generations.”
Van Sant recalled that the incident happened after they had scheduled Dead Man’s Wire. “It was in [December], the Mangione shooting, and we had started just before that in September, and we were moving to Louisville, Kentucky, where we were shooting.” The director then acknowledged the similarities between the story he and his collaborators were telling and Mangione’s case.
“We realized we were making something that had a similarity to it,” Van Sant noted. “I was having this discussion with almost everyone my age of the acceptance of that particular Mangione incident and who the health company CEO was, and the person I was talking to had friends that knew [the CEO].”
Van Sant developed Dead Man’s Wire from a script by Austin Kolodney. The cast includes Bill Skarsgård as Tony Kiritsis and Dacre Montgomery as Richard Hall. Colman Domingo, Al Pacino, and Cary Elwes are also part of the cast.
Dead Man’s Wire premiered at this year’s Venice International Film Festival on September 2, 2025.
Originally reported by Tamal Kundu on ComingSoon.
