Kirsten Dunst has been cast in the lead role in an hourlong dark comedy series about a multilevel marketing firm, according to Deadline. The series, How to Be a God in Central Florida, was written by Robert Funke and Matt Lutsky and will be directed by The Lobster’s Yorgos Lanthimos. George Clooney and Grant Heslov are producing through Smokehouse Pictures.
Dunst will play a financially ruined widow who is scraping by at a minimum-wage job at an Orlando water park. The series will follow her quest to rise through the ranks of the pyramid scheme/multi level marketing company that conned her to exact her revenge. In an encouraging sign for the quality of the show, the company has the pitch-perfect name “Founders American Merchandise” (see, e.g., United Sciences of America, Market America, and of course, Trump favorite American Communications Network). In other words, this show has a great premise, and the role seems perfect for Dunst. Florida’s been ground zero for fraudsters since the first swampland sale—the man who oversaw one of the biggest scams of the 1990s recently got elected governor—and Orlando’s second-tier amusement parks are an ideal setting to dive into capitalism’s seediest back alleys.
The show is coming at the right time, too. Multilevel marketing is having a moment right now: John Oliver gave it 30 minutes in November, Slate’s Helaine Olen looked at Donald Trump and Ben Carson’s ties to the industry, and Andrew Kahn and Shon Arieh-Lerer built a simulator to give everyone a taste of being ripped off by an MLM. It’s unclear why the country is so fascinated by transparent cons that promise riches but only improve things for people at the very top. Apropos of nothing, here’s President-elect Donald Trump to tell you about an exciting business opportunity!
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