He shaved gold flakes from his wedding ring and mixed them in with the samples (at a ratio of approximately 3 oz of gold per ton of rock). After the samples were crushed and collected, De Guzman made sure he had some alone time with them before they were sent to be analyzed. Portrayed by Edgar Ramírez in the movie, the real Michael de Guzman took core samples from the ground, which were supposedly from the Borneo site. It's a fascinating detail that's left out of the film. Felderhof and De Guzman took Walsh out to dinner and convinced him to invest $80,000 to purchase and develop a gold mining site near the Busang River in Borneo ( ). Felderhof knew Walsh had been looking for a potential mining project. Felderhof recommended David Walsh, the penny stock promoter of Bre-X who he'd met in Australia ten years prior. De Guzman convinced Felderhof they should look for an investor who wouldn't interfere too much. De Guzman needed a fellow geologist to corroborate his story, so he shared news of his 'find' with Felderhof, a then-respected geologist. While Edgar Ramírez's character, Michael Acosta, seems to be primarily based on Filipino geologist Michael de Guzman, the character is actually a composite of two individuals, Michael de Guzman and John Felderhof (pictured below). How did the real Kenny Wells and Michael Acosta meet?Īs indicated by the photos at the top of this page, Kenny Wells (Matthew McConaughey) is based on Canadian businessman David Walsh (Matthew McConaughey's character was originally named Kenny Walsh in early iterations of the script).

Jaws by Michael de Guzman