John McAfee was a mess. A brilliant, paranoid, gun-toting, multi-millionaire mess.
If you’ve spent any time looking for a movie about John McAfee, you’ve probably noticed something weird. There are plenty of documentaries—gritty ones where he’s sweating through a shirt in a Belizean jungle or ranting about crypto on a boat—but the big-budget Hollywood biopic? It’s basically a ghost.
Hollywood has been trying to make this movie for over a decade. They had the A-listers. They had the scripts. They had the crazy true story of a tech pioneer who went from "antivirus king" to "person of interest" in a murder case. Yet, every time the cameras were supposed to roll, the project seemed to vanish into the same kind of digital fog McAfee spent his life navigating.
The "King of the Jungle" Disaster
For a long time, the definitive movie about John McAfee was supposed to be a dark comedy called King of the Jungle.
The pedigree was insane. It was based on the 2012 Wired article "John McAfee’s Last Stand" by Joshua Davis. The script was handled by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski—the guys who wrote The People vs. Larry Flynt and Ed Wood. They are the undisputed masters of the "weirdo biopic."
Then there was the casting shuffle. First, Johnny Depp was attached to play McAfee. Honestly? That felt almost too on the nose. Then Michael Keaton signed on, which was even better. Keaton has that specific "maniacal glint in the eye" energy that defined McAfee’s later years. Seth Rogen was set to play the journalist Ari Furman (a fictionalized version of Davis).
Why did it fail?
Basically, it got stuck in development hell. By 2019, Zac Efron replaced Seth Rogen, and Michael Keaton eventually dropped out. When McAfee died in a Spanish prison in 2021, the narrative changed. Suddenly, making a "dark comedy" about a man who died in such grim circumstances felt… complicated.
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The industry started pivoting. Why make a fictionalized version when the real footage was so much weirder?
The Documentaries That Actually Exist
If you want to watch the real-life version of a movie about John McAfee, you have two main options that actually made it to the screen. They don’t have Michael Keaton, but they have the man himself, which is arguably more terrifying.
1. Running with the Devil (Netflix, 2022)
This is the one most people have seen. It’s built on raw footage from a film crew that followed McAfee while he was literally on the run from the authorities in Belize.
- The Vibe: Pure chaos.
- The Hook: It shows McAfee in his most unfiltered state—drinking, waving guns, and using "digital disguises" to evade the FBI and Belizean police.
- The Twist: It features Robert King, a photojournalist who spent years with McAfee. The film suggests that even when McAfee was "on the run," he was essentially directing his own movie. He was obsessed with his image.
2. Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee (Showtime, 2016)
Directed by Nanette Burstein, this is a much darker look at his time in Belize. While Running with the Devil feels like a thriller, Gringo feels like a true-crime investigation.
It dives into the allegations of rape, the murder of his neighbor Gregory Faull, and the "private army" he built in the jungle. It’s not a fun watch. It paints a portrait of a man who used his wealth to treat a developing nation like his personal playground.
Why a Scripted Movie Is So Hard to Get Right
McAfee was a "pathological liar." That’s not an insult; it’s just a fact that his ghostwriters and biographers, like Alex Cody Foster, have openly discussed.
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How do you write a screenplay about a man when you can’t verify 90% of what he said? He claimed to have dozens of children. He claimed to have hacked the world’s governments. He claimed he was being hunted by a hit squad from a Mexican drug cartel.
If a screenwriter puts that in a movie, is it a biopic or a fantasy?
The real movie about John McAfee is essentially a story about the death of truth. He understood the internet better than anyone—he knew that if you tell a story loud enough and make it crazy enough, people will believe it because it’s more entertaining than the boring reality of tax evasion and mental health struggles.
What Most People Get Wrong About the "Murder"
When you search for a movie about John McAfee, the "Belize murder" is always the centerpiece. But the legal reality was always more slippery.
McAfee was never actually charged with the murder of Gregory Faull. He was a "person of interest." He fled because he claimed the Belizean government would kill him if he went into custody. Most experts—and the documentaries—suggest he was actually just paranoid about being extorted for his wealth.
In 2019, a Florida judge did order McAfee to pay $25 million in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by Faull’s estate. McAfee, in classic fashion, tweeted that he had no intention of paying and didn't have the money anyway.
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The Spanish Prison Mystery
The final "scene" of any future movie about John McAfee would have to be the Spanish prison cell in 2021.
The official report says suicide. His wife, Janice McAfee, and a vocal corner of the internet say otherwise. He even had a tattoo that said "WHACKD," claiming that if he ever died in prison, it wasn't his own doing. It’s the perfect, frustrating ending for a Hollywood script—no closure, just more questions.
The Latest: Is There Still a Movie in the Works?
As of 2026, the status of a scripted film is "it’s complicated."
There have been whispers about a limited series rather than a feature film. TV allows for more "chapter-based" storytelling, which fits McAfee's life better. You’ve got the 80s Silicon Valley era, the 90s yoga-guru-in-Colorado era, the Belize years, and the final "crypto-fugitive" era.
Honestly, trying to cram all that into two hours is why the previous movies failed.
If you are looking for the best way to understand the man today, forget the "coming soon" trailers. Stick to the primary sources.
- Watch: Running with the Devil on Netflix for the "fugitive" energy.
- Watch: Gringo on Showtime (or VOD) for the investigative grit.
- Read: No Room for Error by Alex Cody Foster. He was McAfee’s ghostwriter and probably got closer to the "real" John than anyone else with a keyboard.
- Listen: The S-Town creators did a podcast called The Last Days of John McAfee that digs into his final months in a way no movie has yet.
If you’re waiting for a Hollywood blockbuster to tell you the "truth" about John McAfee, you’ll be waiting forever. He spent his whole life making sure the truth was the one thing no one could find.
To get the most accurate picture of his life right now, you should cross-reference the Gringo documentary with the open-source records of his 2016 and 2020 Libertarian presidential campaigns. Seeing the contrast between his "official" political persona and the "jungle king" persona is the only way to see the full, bizarre picture.