Kate Winslet Set To Star In Scott Z. Burns' OneCoin Scheme Drama 'Fake!'

It’s arguable that no one saw “The Report.” That is to say, the critically-acclaimed, very-excellent ‘Report’ by writer Scott Z. Burns, known for writing “The Bourne Ultimatum” (2007), “The Informant!” (2009), and “Contagion” (2011), seemed to get buried upon its fall 2019 release on Amazon Studios. Critics raved during Sundance, thanks to Adam Driver‘s performance but also the film’s thrilling, “All The President’s Men”-like political tension and drama, “The Report” should have been an Oscar contender, even an Independent Spirit Awards contender. The thing is, however, the right people saw it at least, critics, industry players, and perhaps more importantly, Hollywood talent. For his next act, or one of them anyhow, Scott Z. Burns has enlisted Kate Winslet to star in an adaptation of “Fake!” for MGM.

Burns will once again write and direct and co-produce along with Winslet and Jennifer Todd of “The Report.” Fake! is based on the book by Jen McAdam with Douglas Thompson, based on the true-life story of Jen McAdam and her involvement with the OneCoin Ponzi scheme. A cryptocurrency con, it was described by The London Times as “one of the biggest scams in history.”

This based-in-real-life drama is Burns’ bread and butter. While he is a highly-paid script doctor too who has worked uncredited on films like “Die Another Day,” “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” “Ocean’s 12,” and many more, Burns’ generally runs in the lane of fact-driven investigative journalistic driven stories like “The Informant!” (based on a price-fixing whistleblower story), “The Laundromat” (based on the Panama Papers scandal), “The Mercy” (based of a true story of an amateur sailor trying to cover up a yacht-race failure), and “Fake!”

Here’s Deadline with a good breakdown on the OneCoin Ponzi scheme:

OneCoin was promoted as a cryptocurrency by Bulgaria-based offshore companies OneCoin Ltd (registered in Dubai) and OneLife Network Ltd (registered in Belize), both founded by Ruja Ignatova in concert with Sebastian Greenwood. According to reports, U.S. prosecutors alleged that the scheme raked in $4 billion worldwide. Ignatova disappeared in 2017 near the time a secret US warrant was filed for her arrest and was replaced by her brother, Konstantin Ignatov. Most of OneCoin’s leaders have now disappeared or been arrested, thought Ruja Ignatova is still at large. Greenwood was arrested in 2018, as was Konstantin Ignatov in March 2019, who pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering and fraud.

Winslet can next be seen starring in Francis Lee’s “Ammonite” which was selected by Cannes and Telluride and debuted at TIFF this year. Burns also has an AMC musical series in the works, a climate change show in the works called “Extrapolations” which AppleTV+ already gave a series order to. It’s unclear which of these projects will go first, but my guess would be the TV show. “Fake!” is set up at MGM.