House of Cards creator Beau Willimon to make series on Malaysia’s 1MDB corruption scandal

House of Cards creator Beau Willimon will develop a series on Penang-born businessman Jho Low and the 1MDB corruption scandal, chronicled in Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World by Bradley Hope and Tom Wright. 

Willimon and his Westward producing partner Jordan Tappis will collaborate with SK Global, the company that backed Crazy Rich Asians, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Three-time Pulitzer winner and playwright David Henry Hwang will write and executive produce the show. 

Wall Street Journal reporters Hope and Wright had written this non-fiction account of Malayasia's biggest scandal masterminded by Low, and his ties with Hollywood and Wall Street. The book went on to become the New York Times bestseller and was named 2018 Book of the Year by Financial Times. It also went on to sell more than one hundred thousand copies in Asia where it is still a bestseller, THR writes. 

SK Global’s John Penotti, Charlie Corwin and Marcy Ross are executive producers with Willimon and Tappis. Michelle Yeoh is also a producer.

"It’s hard to overstate the cultural impact of this story in Asia and around the world. It’s both a tale of financial greed and deceit, and a darkly comedic social satire," said Penotti and Corwin in a statement.

THR further adds that SK Global is backing other projects in Asia as well like Thai Cave Rescue (Thailand) and Delhi Crime (India) for Netflix, and two films in the Bumilangit Cinematic Universe (Indonesia) for Disney+.