Since Netflix missed the chance to dramatize its own documentary hit Tiger King, the streamer will not make the same mistake twice. After The Tinder Swindler became another hit, Netflix is reportedly developing a movie based on the same subject. Felicity Morris’ documentary told the story of Simon Leviev, a con man who used Tinder to defraud women out of millions of dollars.
Netflix is in talks with producers about dramatizing Leviev’s crimes, sources told Variety back on Feb. 4. Sources said the talks are in the very early stages as Netflix decides what the tone of a movie about Leviev should be. Netflix did not comment on the report.
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The Tinder Swindler debuted on Netflix on Feb. 2 and quickly jumped to the Top 10 in the U.S. and the U.K. The documentary is produced by Raw TV, the same team behind Three Identical Strangers and the Morris-directed Don’t F*** With Cats, AGC Studios, and Gaspin Media. Bernadette Higgins was the producer on The Tinder Swindler, alongside executive producers Bart Layton and Sam Starbuck for Raw TV; Jeff Gaspin and Eric Levy for Gaspin Media; and Stuart Ford and Lourdes Diaz for AGC Studios.
The Tinder Swindler is about Leviev, who was born Shimon Hayut but legally changed his name to convince people he was related to billionaire diamond mogul Lev Leviev. After escaping fraud charges in his native Israel, he traveled around Europe and used Tinder to contact women. He tricked them into loaning him money, but he never repaid them.
Leviev essentially operated a Ponzi scheme, wherein he used the money he stole from one victim to buy lavish gifts for his next victim. He also convinced his victims that he was being targeted by “enemies,” but had a bodyguard who would save him. He claimed a security breach made it impossible for him to use his own bank accounts, so he convinced his victims to take out loans and get new credit cards to help. He pretended to repay his victims with fake documents, but he never really repaid them before he stopped communicating with them. Leviev was sentenced to 15 months in jail in Israel in December 2019, but only served five months and is now out of prison.
Netflix’s rush to start developing a dramatization of the Tinder Swindler story might be due to its inability to get its own Tiger King series done. Instead, their rival Peacock has Joe vs. Carole, which stars Kate McKinnon as Carole Baskin and John Cameron Mitchell as Joe Exotic. It debuts on March 3. Netflix tried to milk Tiger King by releasing two follow-up seasons, Tiger King 2 and Tiger King: The Doc Antle Story, but neither of these were anywhere near as successful as the original 2020 season.
