In this combination photo, actor Johnny Depp, left, appears at the premiere of "Alice Through the Looking Glass" on May 23, 2016, in Los Angeles. and anti-virus software founder John McAfee appears in the South Beach area of Miami Beach, Fla., on Dec 12, 2012 after being deported from Guatemala, where he had sought refuge to evade police questioning in the killing of a man in neighboring Belize. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, right, and Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) --
Johnny Depp is set to star in "King of the Jungle," a dark comedy about the eccentric inventor of McAfee Antivirus software, John McAfee.
Condé Nast Entertainment said Sunday that the story is based on a Wired magazine article about the tech titan who left the business to live an isolated existence in the Belize jungle.
From "Ed Wood" screenwriting team Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, "King of the Jungle" will follow the reporter assigned to write about the paranoid McAfee.
"King of the Jungle" will be directed by "Crazy. Stupid. Love" directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. International and domestic distribution rights are up for sale at the Cannes Film Festival.
Depp can be seen next in "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales," out May 26.
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Antonia Thomas, left, and and Josh Dylan appear on the set of the Agatha Christie series "Tommy & Tuppence" in Beaconsfield, England on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
The scene: Outside a stately English home, a man and a woman attempt to solve a mystery. What's unusual about this picture?
They're using the internet.
In a departure from what could be the logline for many a cozy English mystery before it, "Agatha Christie's Tommy & Tuppence" marks the first time Agatha Christie's work has been modernized for an English-speaking TV audience. In this six-part drama premiering next year, there are phones, social media and TikTok alongside the usual murky secrets, red herrings and nefarious crimes.
Speaking in late October on the set of the BritBox contemporary series shooting in the U.K., writer and executive producer Phoebe Eclair-Powell says the makers were thrilled to get permission from Christie's estate and have been careful not to "simplify" solving classic puzzles, like a locked room mystery, with new tech.
"We have used it, but carefully, sparingly, and when we think actually that it's enhanced the original story that it's adapted from," explains Eclair-Powell.
She says that it's been a "tricky" part of the process, but one they hope Christie herself would approve of.
In Japan, Korea, India and Sweden, there have already been Christie characters living in the modern age, but this is the first contemporary adaptation in the author's native language.
"Phoebe came to us with a brilliant take on the stories which put them in the modern day and because of the energy & vitality of these characters it felt completely natural to say yes!" Christie's great-grandson James Prichard, who manages the literary rights to her estate, wrote in an email.
The Associated Press joined stars Antonia Thomas ("The Good Doctor") and Josh Dylan ("The Buccaneers") in the library of a... Read More
