Unrealistic Ideas, the production company co-owned by Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson, and Archie Gips, is collaborating with producer Van Echeverri to produce a documentary about the FBI's takedown of Owen Hanson, a former USC football player turned drug kingpin. The film will delve into how Hanson used his education and business skills to build a global drug empire that spanned several continents before being arrested in 2015 and sentenced to over 21 years in prison. The FBI used sophisticated techniques, including electronic surveillance and undercover agents, to capture Hanson, and professional gambler-turned-FBI source R.J. Cipriani played a key role in his arrest. The film is in line with Unrealistic Ideas' track record in the true-crime genre, which includes the HBO docuseries McMillion$.
Owen Hanson is a former USC football player who became a drug kingpin. He began dealing recreational drugs and steroids to teammates in college during the early 2000s and ultimately built a violent empire that operated in the United States, Central and South America, and Australia. Hanson was arrested in September 2015 and sentenced in late 2017 to more than 21 years in federal prison. He was ordered to pay a $5 million criminal forfeiture, which included $100,000 in gold coins, luxury vehicles, jewelry, vacation homes, a sailboat, and interests in several businesses. The FBI teamed up with the New South Wales Police Force in Australia to nab Hanson and uncovered an illegal sports-gambling, money-laundering, and drug-trafficking enterprise of thousands of kilograms of illegal narcotics that led to Hanson. More than 21 of his associates were also arrested. The FBI employed an array of sophisticated investigative techniques, court-authorized electronic surveillances, informants, and undercover agents to bring Hanson down.