Actor Matthew Rhys wants to play the powerful New York urban planner Robert Moses in an adaptation of Robert Caro’s genre-defining biography The Power Broker, and he says Netflix is interested, though publishing rights have emerged as a holdup over the project.
Rhys revealed the Power Broker project on Conan O’Brien’s podcast Monday (O’Brien, it is worth noting, is a well-known fan of Caro’s, finally landing him as a guest in 2019 after years of trying to book him).
“There is a select group of us who have approached a very well-known streaming platform,” Rhys said. “At the moment, dear Mr. Caro, he doesn’t have an issue with handing over the rights to The Power Broker. The agencies and publishing houses do. So at the moment, it’s in this stalemate whereby I know the Flix called Net are trying to…”
“Work things out,” O’Brien adds.
“Yes, and acquire the rights to The Power Broker,” Rhys added. “It’s been pitched. They do want to do it.”
“I have no sway in this business at all. I have a little bit of sway with Robert Caro, just because I think he knows me. I’ve interviewed him. He knows I’m a huge fan and an acolyte of his,” O’Brien added. “But I would do everything in my power to make sure that you play. I think you’d be amazing. And I think that would be just a terrific project.”
“I certainly think it’s a story in a book that needs to get made, because the sheer scale and scope of it,” Rhys continued. “But also Moses as a human being, as an individual, if you read that play book, is staggering. It lays Shakespeare to the sword, because you cannot quite believe the ascent of that man.”
The Power Broker, of course, chronicles the rise to power and unyielding influence of Moses, who reshaped New York City and the surrounding suburbs through his expansion of highways, bridges, and other projects. The Pulitzer Prize-winning book was released in 1974 and is in its 74th printing, with Caro revealing that it sold 40,000 copies in 2024, an astonishing number for a 50-year old title.
It is not immediately clear whether the Netflix project would be a film, a miniseries or a series, but Moses’ story, as chronicled by Caro, would make for a ripe exploration by any media giant.
You can see the full episode of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, below.
