Montreal indie producer Impact Future Media on Monday said it has secured the exclusive intellectual property rights to John McAfee, the antivirus software pioneer now the subject of a murder probe in Belize.

“We are very excited about working with John McAfee, on this initiative,” François Garcia, CEO and co-founder of Impact Future Media, based in Montreal, said in a statement.

The Canadian-based producer said the McAfee project is tentatively titled Running in the Background: The True Story of John McAfee.

Impact Future Media is aiming to license, publish or develop the McAfee project across multiple platforms, including film, print, television and digital media.

Company co-founder Brian Fitzgerald, reached in Honolulu, told Playback in an email statement that the deal for McAfee’s life story rights was secured “before his current troubles in central America.”

Impact Future Media, which develops, produces and markets IP for the entertainment industry, is also producing High on Tuna, a TV series that is a prequel to the 2001 movie Blow, which starred Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz.

McAfee’s mounting legal woes in Latin America, where he most recently was detained in Guatemala by police over an investigation into a murder of the software pioneer’s neighbour in Belize, has thrust Impact Future Media into the limelight.

Fitzgerald insisted the life story rights deal was inked last week, and that his company remains in daily contact with the embattled U.S. tech guru.

Impact Future Media ties to McAfee apparently include the producer representing Chad Essley, founder of CartoonMonkey Studio.

Essley is McAfee’s official cartoonist and a key player in the development and management of whoismcafee.com, according to Fitzgerald.

“My most heartfelt thank you goes to Impact Future Media and CartoonMonkey Studio,” McAfee said in a statement issued by Impact Future Media.

“Their dedication to the truth is very uncommon in the world we live in today.  I am now, and will always be grateful to their organizations,” he added.

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