Matt Damon Starring In Charlatan

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Matt Damon's played a few characters based on real-life people in his time, and he's also proven himself capable of bringing comedy to the screen. He'll get the chance to do both with a new indie project, which will find him starring as a doctor making false promises in Charlatan.

Brian Koppelman and David Levien have been at work adapting Pope Brock's non-fiction bestseller Charlatan: America’s Most Dangerous Huckster, The Man Who Pursued Him, And The Age Of Flimflam. It'll chronicle how doctor John R. Brinkley set up a clinic in Kansas in 1918 with wild promises of curing male impotence, among other issues. His seemingly miracle cure? A surgery involving implanting goat testicles into his patients. The idea made him rich, at least he was accused in court of the death of several clients following botched procedures.

There's no director attached yet, and the film already has some potential competition – Robert Downey Jr. and his company are developing a take on the tale based on the Man Of The People episode of the podcast Reply All.

Damon has Suburbicon landing on 24 November and will be seen in Alexander Payne's Downsizing, due 19 January.