Michael Douglas teams up with MGM to do 'Art Con'

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Michael Douglas has teamed up with MGM to develop a feature based on one of the biggest art-fraud scandals of the 20th century.

The studio has optioned "Art Con of the Century," an investigative article written last year by author and journalist Peter Landesman, and has hired "M. Butterfly" playwright David Henry Hwang to write the script.

It will be developed as a starring vehicle for Michael Douglas, who will also serve as a producer via his Furthur Films banner.

Douglas, who won his actor Oscar playing "Wall Street" scoundrel Gordon Gekko, has always wanted to play a gentleman thief. In the film, he would play John Drewe, a charismatic con who in 1986 found painter-songwriter John Myatt, who had a knack for producing copies of paintings by master artists that regularly fooled art experts. Drewe paid Myatt to crank out purported originals that were sold all over the world for large sums, a nine-year escapade that put 200 forgeries into circulation.

While it seemed that Myatt did not fully understand the gravity of what he was doing, Drewe got away with the charade through charm, and because he forged declarations of authenticity from previous owners that made the paintings seem legit.

Scotland Yard investigators brought an end to Drewe's scam by getting Myatt to confess and then help catch the mastermind. Drewe is serving a six-year stretch, but only 73 of the 200 bogus paintings have been taken out of circulation.

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