Billy Corben Directing Docuseries About Billionaire John McAfee for Spike TV

Miami-based Rakontur studios is bringing its latest obsession to the small screen. From the same group that produced Cocaine Cowboys, The Tanning of America, Limelight, Square Grouper, The U, Broke, and the recently released The U Part 2, comes the newest creation from director Billy Corben: The McAfee Project. Spike TV has picked up the planned six-part docuseries about troubled billionaire and online security pioneer John McAfee.

You're likely familiar with the McAfee's name, or at least his product, the security program that pops up on your computer every few months begging for an update. 

The series will focus on the international murder mystery involving McAfee that resulted in one of the most intense manhunt's in Central America’s history. McAfee was named a “person of interest,” by police officials in Belize following the murder of his neighbor. He was on the run for three weeks before crossing into Guatemala, where he was eventually detained by Guatemalan authorities for questioning.


McAfee — in repeated attempts to avoid deportation to Belize — claimed police and drug cartels in Belize were out to kill him, and reportedly faked multiple heart attacks in an attempt to delay the process. Following a lengthy legal battle, McAfee was deported to the United States, and his home in Belize was mysteriously went up in flames and burned to the ground. 

The bizarre twist of events will be documented by Corben and his production team in a variety of ways, including first-person interviews of people that know McAfee, and reenactments of pivotal turns in his story. The docuseries will particularly focus on McAfee's history with drugs and alcohol while in college in Virginia, the eventual birth of the company McAfee and Associates in 1987, and the now famous 2012 murder investigation in Belize. Some are comparing The McAfee Project's rumored format to that of the HBO sensation The Jinx, of which chronicled the story of millionaire murder suspect Robert Durst. 

The McAfee Project will be shot this summer and air on Spike sometime in 2016.