the Martin Shkreli / Wu-Tang Clan 'Shaolin' album saga becoming Netflix movie
The saga of Wu-Tang Clan‘s extremely limited edition seventh album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, and how it came to belong to incarcerated “pharma-bro” Martin Shkreli, is already the stuff of legend, and like so many juicy stories, it’ll soon take the logical next step and head to Netflix. As Collider reports, news about the project was revealed in a press release for How to Make it in America writer Ian Edelman‘s new film, American Sole. According to the release, Edelman wrote the Shaolin script too, and Paul Downs Colaizzo, who directed Brittany Runs a Marathon, is set to direct. Collider reports RZA is expected to produce the project, along with Brad Pitt’s Plan B production company.
Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, as the story goes, was recorded in secret over the course of six years, with a single, two-CD copy pressed in 2014 and stored in a secure vault in a Moroccan hotel. It was auctioned for millions in 2015 to Shkreli, under the agreement that it can’t be released commercially for 88 years, until 2103. RZA said that the sale was agreed upon “well before Martin Skhreli’s [sic] business practices came to light,” and that a “significant portion of the proceeds” were given to charity.
Shkreli later tried to sell the album on eBay himself, and although RZA tried to buy it back, the terms of the original sale wouldn’t allow him too. Shkreli was later ordered to forfeit Shaolin, along with other assets, as part of his criminal sentence after being found guilty of securities fraud in 2017.
