After a bidding war that involved several studios and production companies, Netflix has won the film rights to an Atlantic magazine story about Dr. Rapp, a 63-year-old doctor-turned-freestyle rapper.
Author Jeff Maysh’s story “How a Stroke Turned a 63-Year-Old Into a Rap Legend” was published on Jan. 16 and sparked the first major rights auction of 2019.
It describes the life of Dr. Sherman Hershfield, a respected neurologist from Beverly Hills, who practiced medicine in California’s San Fernando Valley. When Hershfield suffered a stroke, an unusual side effect changed his life forever: He couldn’t stop speaking in rhyme. Remarkably, Hershfield then emerged in South Central as a freestyle performer, “Dr. Rapp.”
David Klawans (“Argo”) will produce with Michael Sugar (“Spotlight”) and Ashley Zalta through Sugar23’s first-look Netflix deal.
This is the latest magazine article sale in a streak for Klawans, who recently set up Maysh’s Daily Beast article “McScam” with Twentieth Century Fox, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon; a Daily Beast story about Prince with Paramount Players and Elizabeth Banks; and Maysh’s Atlantic article “A Catfish with a Happy Ending,” also with Netflix, among others.
Margaux Swerdloff, director of development, brought the project in for Sugar23.
Maysh was repped by Joel Gotler at Intellectual Property Group.