Annapurna and Plan B Entertainment have teamed to acquire rights to develop a feature film about the investigation that led New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s to break the story of Harvey Weinstein’s decades-long history of sexual harassment and assault, a source told TheWrap.
The scandal wound up being the biggest Hollywood has seen in decades, leading to a slew of powerful men in the industry, including Weinstein, to lose their positions of power.
The stories from Kantor and Twohey won The New York Times a Pulitzer Prize earlier this month.
The upcoming film, which is in early development, will follow the investigation into Weinstein, not the man himself. The focus is on the team of reporters who tracked, chased and fought through threats to brake the story — think “Spotlight” or “All The President’s Men.”
Kantor and Twohey broke the story detailing Weinstein’s 30-year history of sexual harassment and assault in October last year. It included details of how Weinstein paid off accusers in attempts to hush them up for decades.
The New York Times story, and the many from the New Yorker and other outlets that followed, spotlighted a culture of sexual harassment, assault and misconduct that had run rampant in Hollywood.
The reporting led to The Weinstein Co. board firing Weinstein, as other powerful men in the industry were also pushed out of their positions.
Weinstein is currently under criminal investigation in at least four jurisdictions, including New York, Los Angeles and London, as the company he founded preps to sell-off assets in bankruptcy court.
Plan B, the production partnership from Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, last year moved its production deal from New Regency to Megan Ellison’s Annapurna. The film the two have out coming under the new partnership is Adam McKay’s Dick Cheney biopic starring Christian Bale.
A source confirmed that the rights deal was put together by Anonymous Content. The production and management company recently signed The New York Times to broker deals for movie and TV opportunities relating to its investigative journalism.