“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Monk” star Tony Shalhoub is set to play former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn in a six-part television series depicting the executive’s fall, according to Deadline.
Titled “Fall of the God of Cars,” the series will be a dramatization of Ghosn’s life produced by Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón and Michael Winterbottom, best known for the U.K. Covid-19 documdrama “This England,” according to the report. Timing for the series’ release wasn’t mentioned.
Ghosn was initially heralded as the savior of Nissan and its alliance partner Renault. In 1996, the Brazilian-Lebanese executive turned Renault into a profitable company in just one year, then did the same at Nissan five years later. He also oversaw the then Renault Nissan alliance’s initial push for electric cars, as well as the 2016 purchase of a controlling stake in Mitsubishi.
Ghosn stepped down as CEO of Nissan in 2017, and was arrested in November of the following year on allegations of financial misconduct, including underreporting personal income with financial regulators and misuse of company funds while running the automaker. After making bail, he was re-arrested the following month on fresh charges.
Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, introducing the 2015 Nissan GT-R NISMO prior to the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show
That’s when the story gets truly television-worthy. In 2019, Ghosn fled to Lebanon, reportedly by being smuggled out of Japan in a music instrument case of a band that performed at a Christmas party at his Tokyo residence. At the time, Ghosn said he left Japan to escape “injustice and political persecution” and a “rigged Japanese justice system.”
Ghosn remains eager to voice his opinions. In a nearly two-hour interview released in 2021, he criticized the EV plans of Nissan and other established automakers, while comparing himself to Tesla CEO Elon Musk because of their mutual early support for EVs. Musk meanwhile has a documentary about him coming up shortly.
