Jean Doumanian Returns to Familiar Territory
Jean Doumanian, the film producer who may be best known for feuding with former business partner Woody Allen several years ago, has a new project in the works. Her production company has acquired the stage and film rights to Mitchell Zuckoff's 2005 book, Ponzi's Scheme, which details the life and times of Charles Ponzi, the charlatan who made off with millions in the 1920s. Naturally, Doumanian thinks the timing is just right for a tale of greed and financial fraud: "The whole ambiance of Boston in the '20s before the Depression has great parallels with what we're seeing today with Madoff and our terrible recession-depression." Presumably she'll have plenty of personal material to draw on, too. When Woody Allen filed suit against her several years ago, he alleged that she and her husband had been providing him with false financial records and had used shady accounting tactics to cheat him out of millions.