Late banking heir Matthew Mellon’s story could be coming to the big screen, sources exclusively tell Page Six. But apparently the family of the hard-partying cryptocurrency billionaire is divided over the project.
“There is a screenplay being shopped,” a friend said of the planned biopic on Mellon — who infamously battled addiction after graduating from Wharton and coming into trusts worth $25 million at age 21 as a scion of the Mellon and Drexel dynasties.
Mellon married Jimmy Choo mogul Tamara Mellon in 2000 after the pair met at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. After they split, he married and divorced fashion designer Nicole Hanley.
By 2016, Mellon was in treatment for a $100,000-per-month OxyContin habit. But he managed a comeback by reinventing himself as a flashy bitcoin billionaire, complete with a $150,000-a-month Hollywood Hills home and an “armored car that resembled a tank,” according to Forbes, which named him to its Richest People in Cryptocurrency list.
In April, Page Six exclusively reported Mellon died suddenly in Cancun on his way to rehab.
Said one source of the film project: “This may be fulfilling a dream of Matthew’s. He would have loved this idea . . . He used to say, ‘How cool would it be to have a movie about my crazy life?’ ”
The source said that while Mellon — whose social circle included Paris and Nicky Hilton and Lindsay Lohan — was alive, he was pitched to star in a cable reality series and was interested, but that some in his family weren’t keen on the exposure. We hear he also wanted to create content with hip brand VFiles.
While some close to Mellon are backing the new movie concept, a source said that others “are horrified by the idea . . . The last thing they want is the Mellon legacy portrayed on-screen.”
A source said that there’s even been buzz the film’s gotten interest from Johnny Depp — though that may be just wishful thinking: A source close to the movie star said he’d never heard of it. Reps did not get back to us.