Plan B and Annapurna, who have partnered to acquire the rights to the story, are aiming to tell the tale of how two reporters faced down threats and intimidation to push through with one of the most important stories of the decade.
Last year the Harvey Weinstein scandal made headlines when reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey wrote about sexual harassment allegations against Mr. Weinstein dating back to 1990. And now the Harvey Weinstein story will be turned into a movie. Plan B, the Brad Pitt-headlined production company behind Oscar winners 12 Years a Slave and Moonlight, and Annapurna, Megan Ellison’s media banner that made Detroit and Phantom Thread, have partnered to acquire the rights to the behind-the-scenes story of the two reporters. According to Hollywood Reporter, “The story of New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, and their roles in taking down movie mogul Harvey Weinstein is getting the Hollywood treatment.”
Headlined ‘Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades’, Kantor and Twohey’s first story ran in The New York Times on October 5, 2017. It detailed numerous allegations of sexual harassment and assault against Weinstein over the past several decades, which led to Weinstein’s firing as the co-chairman of the Weinstein Company. The article also included details of hush money paid to cover up the sexual indiscretions and first-person accounts by actresses while Weinstein denied — and continues to deny — any charges of non-consensual sexual indiscretions.This is the biggest scandal story Hollywood has seen in decades, which landed the reporters The Pulitzer Prize earlier this month.
“There is currently no writer or director on board, as the rights were just acquired, but the project is sure to gain momentum very quickly. Sources stress that the film will be in the vein of Spotlight and focus on the reporters and their journey to break the story, not Weinstein himself. The rights deal was put together by Anonymous Content, which was also behind another newspaper movie, The Post, focusing on the Pentagon Papers and the Washington Post’s part in the story. That movie was recently nominated for a best picture Oscar,” stated Variety.
Even though the Weinstein story became a catalyst for the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, the thrust of the film isn’t Weinstein or his purported crimes. Plan B and Annapurna are aiming to tell the tale of how the reporters faced down threats and intimidation to push through with one of the most important stories of the decade. The movie will be about an all-women team of journalists who persevered through threats of litigation, to break a game-changing story. Movies such as All the President’s Men and Spotlight are the touchstones for the project.
While Spotlight became a movie long after those Boston Globe reporters won the Pulitzer for exposing an institutional cover-up of paedophile priests within the Boston diocese of the Catholic Church, Plan B and Annapurna will be getting into the Weinstein saga in real time, much the way that Mark Boal and Kathryn Bigelow did on Annapurna’s Zero Dark Thirty.
– With information from Hollywood Reporter and Variety.
