story (from the production notes)

In 1971, Clifford Irving achieved the very heights of American journalism, nabbing a series of unprecedented interviews with the most famous man in the world – ultra-reclusive, immensely powerful, superstar billionaire Howard Hughes – revealing his most intimate memories and controversial secrets.

Actually, that’s a lie.

In 1971, writer Clifford Irving told an incredible whopper – one that became one of the most audacious and outrageous hoaxes ever perpetrated on the media and American public. Claiming to have obtained Howard Hughes’ long sought-after memoirs, Irving pulled the wool over the entire publishing industry’s eyes, and nearly made off with major cash and worldwide fame, until his clever yarn unraveled into a serious crime.

Now from Academy Award®-nominated director Lasse Hallström (CIDER HOUSE RULES, CHOCOLAT) comes THE HOAX, a riveting caper inspired by Irving’s untrue story. Jumping off from the still controversial facts surrounding Irving’s ruse into a fictional reverie, the film mischievously and imaginatively explores how a man, an industry and an entire nation could become intoxicated by a good story . . . in sheer defiance of the fact that it never really happened.

Golden Globe winner Richard Gere takes on the roguish role of Clifford Irving, an ambitious yet struggling writer who’s been looking for that one big story for so long, he brazenly decides to make one up. At first the idea is just a savvy artistic prank, but if that’s what the world wants, Irving believes he can take it further. Shrouding himself in a clever cloud of secrecy, he drops the news to a major publisher that he has been approached by the one man the entire world most wants to know about – aviator, movie mogul, ladies man and eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes – to ink his priceless biography.

There’s just one little problem: not a word of what Clifford is saying has an ounce of truth to it. He’s never so much as seen a glimpse of the real Howard Hughes. But Irving banks on the idea that Hughes’ seclusion and notoriously thin hold on reality will allow the con to succeed. Hughes has not been seen or heard from in public for over a decade. He is a total recluse. Irving relies on this fact to protect his bogus story – as Hughes refuses to confirm or deny anything so prevalent is his fear of appearing in public. Recruiting his anxiety-prone but loyal best friend Dick Suskind (ALFRED MOLINA) and European artist wife (Academy Award® winner MARCIA GAY HARDEN) into the scheme, Clifford soon finds himself in a wild maze of treachery, as he is forced to dodge the fallout of his falsehoods at every turn. What started as an adventurous lark soon turns into a seemingly inescapable maze of forgeries, thefts, tall tales, deceptions and impersonations.

Yet Clifford’s plan works like magic as his publishers, hungry for a bestseller at any cost, are hoodwinked by the thrill of it all. When Clifford stumbles upon possible links between Hughes and a corrupt Nixon administration, the stakes for his book grow even higher. Clifford is on top of the world . . . until the real Howard Hughes shockingly emerges to pull the rug out from under him. Only now, Clifford is so caught up in the tale he created that he may no longer know where his incredible story ends and reality begins.