Carlos Ghosn Flirted With Hollywood, Then Delivered a Plot Twist

The fallen auto titan held early discussions with a movie producer before his audacious escape. The film's villain: Japanese justice

Carlos Ghosn, the fallen head of the Nissan-Renault auto alliance, didn’t know much about making movies, but he seemed willing to learn.

Sitting in his rented home in a wealthy Tokyo neighborhood one day in December, he walked John Lesher, a Hollywood producer behind the Oscar-winning 2014 Michael Keaton film, “Birdman,” through the plot of his own story, describing what he sees as his unjust imprisonment by Japanese officials and his struggle to prove his innocence, said people familiar with the discussions.

The theme was redemption. The villain was the Japanese justice system.

The talks were preliminary and did not get far, the