Anonymous Content and Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions are teaming up to develop and produce a documentary project about the December 2024 murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
From the crime’s seemingly meticulous execution to the alleged killer’s manifesto and his Ivy League background to the public’s unapologetic apathy towards the victim, the investigative deep dive will ask how killers are created, what this killing says about our society and the values we place on who lives and who dies.
Thompson, who became UnitedHealthcare’s CEO in April 2021 after more than 20 years at the company, was shot and killed on the morning of December 4th in midtown Manhattan. The shooting has sparked a national conversation around Americans’ frustration with the healthcare industry and health insurance companies’ denial of claims and care, as well as rising costs. According to multiple news sources, UnitedHealthcare has the highest claim denial rate among American insurance companies, rejecting 32% of claims compared to the industry average of 16%.
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On Monday, December 9th, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania and charged with murder in connection with the shooting following a five-day manhunt. He was found with a ghost gun that authorities said was similar to the one used by the killer, as well as a handwritten manifesto about the healthcare industry. Mangione, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020, reportedly suffered from back pain and underwent surgery to treat it in recent years.
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Gibney’s work has been the recipient of an Academy Award, multiple Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, several Peabody Awards, DuPont-Columbia Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, Writers Guild Awards, and more. His films include Taxi to the Dark Side (2008 Oscar); Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (Oscar-nominated 2006); triple Emmy award, Peabody award, WGA screenplay award, and Dupont Columbia award winning Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief (HBO), among many others. Gibney’s most recent work includes the music documentary, In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023 and is now available on MGM+. Wise Guys: David Chase & The Sopranos, Gibney’s two-part series on the iconic show, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2024, now available on HBO Max.
The feature documentary, The Bibi Files, an inside look into the corruption charges against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which premiered at DOCNYC and is available exclusively on Jolt. Gibney is currently in production on the documentary Musk about the tech giant Elon Musk and “Knife” a tentatively titled documentary inspired by Salman Rushdie’s memoir “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder,” published in April. Gibney is the recipient of the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award from the News & Documentary Emmys.