As if living through the horrific news cycle of the Harvey Weinstein investigation wasn’t stressful enough, the extremely heroic work of Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, who broke the Weinstein story for the New York Times, is headed to the big screen.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, prestigious production companies Plan B (headed by Brad Pitt and responsible for 12 Years a Slave and Moonlight) and Annapurna (Megan Ellison’s banner that produced Detroit and Phantom Thread) have snatched the screen rights from the reporting duo.
No other movers and shakers are attached to the project yet. With recent hits like The Post and Spotlight, a gripping newsroom drama is a no-brainer at the box office. The production companies won’t be focusing on the monster himself, but rather all the behind the scenes work Kantor and Twohey put into their groundbreaking coverage of Weinstein’s history of abuse.
Their first story, published on October 5 and titled "Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades,” catapulted the mainstream resurgence of the #MeToo movement, the start of the #TimesUp movement, and preceded the exposure of dozens of other powerful abusers including but not limited to Louis C.K., Kevin Spacey, Matt Lauer, and Russell Simmons. Kantor and Twohey’s work won the Times a Pulitzer Prize in Public Service, shared with The New Yorker for Ronan Farrow's part in telling Weinstein's story.
There’s no telling when the project will really get rolling, but it’s sure to be a significant recounting of some of the most important journalistic work in recent history.
