CANNES — Private Media Group cofounder and former company president and CEO Berth Milton Jr. is the subject of Swedish filmmaker Daniel Fridell's new biopic "A Private Story."
Budgeted at $20 million, the Revelin Studios and Wanted Pictures production will detail Private Media's global rise under Milton Jr.'s reluctant leadership with focus on his tumultuous relationship with his father, whom he claimed attempted to kill him in an effort to regain control of the company.
Fridell told THR.com that he had first met Milton Jr. at the Cannes Film Festival in 1999 and was almost immediately inspired to shoot a movie based on Milton' Jr.'s life.
"When we were drunk, he told me that his father just tried to kill him to get the Private company back," Fridell said. "I realized the Oedipus drama behind it and asked him if I could make a film about his father and his life as the poorest billionaire in the world.
"He got angry and we almost started to fight," Fridell continued. "Ten years later, he called me up and said: Now my father is dead. I want to tell my story to you.”
Milton Jr., who was terminated as Private's president and CEO earlier this year by the company's board of directors following a December suspension for allegedly embezzling funds, was in Cannes last week to promote the project.
"A Private Story" is slated to begin production on December 3 for an August 2013 release.
