HBO's latest scammer flick, Bad Education, stars Hugh Jackman as a school superintendent running an $8 million embezzlement scheme, and while the film's premise sounds stranger than fiction, it's actually based on a true story .

It all started in 2004, when now-screenwriter Mike Makowsky was in middle school, and his district superintendent, Frank Tassone, was arrested for first-degree larceny, according to Vanity Fair .

Tassone was a charismatic figure well known in the wealthy Long Island community of Roslyn school district, and though details about his personal life baffled local residents, they continued paying high taxes because their district became nationally ranked, and their kids got accepted to top colleges.

At school, the superintendent ate lobster for lunch and sometimes sat with high school students, led a book club for parents, and welcomed every new student to the district personally. Off the clock, Tassone paid rent on the Upper East Side, spent $2.2 million on trips to the Caribbean, went gambling in Las Vegas a few times a year, wore designer suits, and drove a Mercedesall using taxpayer money.

Plus, according to New York Magazine 's deep dive into the case: "The seemingly monastic bachelor who had an old wedding photo on a shelf in his officeand spoke wistfully of the young woman he married who died of cancerturned out, it appears, to be living with one man in Manhattan while owning a house in Las Vegas with a 32-year-old male exotic dancer."

Frank believed he should be paid millions for his work.

"Frank Tassone was the first person I met in Roslyn," Makowsky told Vanity Fair at the Toronto Film Festival, where the film first premiered in 2019. "I wanted to write something more personal about my hometown...and this story was ostensibly the biggest thing that has ever happened in it."

Per NY Mag , Tassone believed he should be entitled to the same privileges as CEOs of private companies with an $80 million budget. "He thought the salaries of administrators should be as high as possible," said Charlie Piemonte, Roslyns assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction at the time. "That these jobs had a great deal of subtlety and required education. Hed say, 'Look at the CEO of IBMtheyre making zillions and were making $200,000.'"

And he wasn't the only one who misused taxpayer money.

Tassone wasn't the only bad apple in the district. Allison Janney's character, Pam Gluckin, the assistant superintendent for business, stole $4.3 million dollars, in addition to the million dollars she and Tassone withdrew from ATMs. She apparently renovated her Hamptons house using the money and gave her son a credit card paid by the school district.

Tassone tried to commit suicide before his arrest.

In a new interview with life coach Mike Bayer on The Coach Mike Podcast , Tassone said that shortly before his arrest, he tried to kill himself by taking pills.

The podcast interview was a rare public appearance from Tassone since his early release from prison in 2010. (According to authorities, Tassone repaid Roslyn the $2 million he was accused of stealing, Newsday reported.)

The Roslyn community and school district didn't support the making of Bad Education.

Though this sounds like a killer movie plot, taxpayers in Roslyn weren't thrilled when Jackman began production on the film in 2018, because they were concerned it would give their community a bad reputation.

"The school district is not associated with the movie or its production, is not participating in this movie in any way, and no filming will be permitted on school grounds," read the districts statement, according to the Roslyn News . "While the film is purportedly meant to entertain, it's important to remember that what occurred in our school district was far from entertaining. A former superintendent and several accomplices conspired to steal approximately $11.2 million meant for our childrens education. The scandal shook our community deeply."

Makowsky acknowledged while the film is called Bad Education, he was lucky to go to school in Roslyn. "I had an incredible education there," he said. "And I think it's in large part, strangely, due to this man, Frank Tassone, who recruited most of the teachers I had. We were one of the top-ranked schools in the country when Tassone was arrested."

But Frank Tassone plans to watch the film anyway.

"Im afraid of seeing myself portrayed as being a liar and a cheat and a thiefand I was a thief, no question," Tassone also said on The Coach Mike Podcast. Nonetheless, he said he still plans to watch Bad Education, even though he was shaken upon first hearing about the film from a friend. "I just crumbled," Tassone said on the podcast. "I thought, 'My god, I thought this finally was over.' Itll never be over for me. Every day I feel pain."