Harvey Weinsteins Downfall Might Inspire the Next Great Newspaper Movie
Harvey Weinstein is coming back to the movies, but not in the way he would have wanted. A film about..
Harvey Weinstein is coming back to the movies, but not in the way he would have wanted. A film about New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twoheys damning coverage of the former Weinstein Company boss is on the way, courtesy of Plan B and Annapurna Pictures, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Timess first story about Weinstein dug deep into allegations that he had sexually harassed numerous women over the last few decades, allegedly paying some of them off for their silence as well. (Weinstein, through a spokesperson, has denied all claims of nonconsensual acts.) Their initial report opened the floodgates, soon inspiring dozens of women to come forward with claims that the powerful producer had harassed or assaulted them as well—giving rise to the broader #MeToo movement that swept Hollywood and beyond. In April, Twohey and Kantor won the Pulitzer Prize for their reporting, an award they shared with Ronan Farrow, who wrote a series of investigative Weinstein pieces for The New Yorker.
The movie will shift the spotlight away from Weinstein and his alleged exploits, and will instead go full Spotlight, putting the focus on Twohey and Kantor and how they investigated the story. A director and screenwriter have not yet been announced.
The reporting duo, who is writing a book about sexual abuse scandals (Kantor also reported on sexual misconduct allegations against Louis C.K.; the comedian admitted the allegations were true in a subsequent statement), have been candid about how they traced the Weinstein story, spending months convincing people to talk on the record, and working around a pile of nondisclosure agreements. The journalists also had to face off against Weinstein himself, who was famous for his bullying tactics even before the allegations about his sexual misconduct came to light.
“He threatened to sue us,” Kantor told Variety. “He had a large team coming at us. We were getting phone calls constantly. And that was only the stuff that was overt. There were a lot of behind-the-scenes attempts at suppressing the story.”
Ronan Farrow has also said that Weinstein threatened to sue him. In an interview with *The Hollywood Reporter, he added that after he started investigating Weinstein, he began receiving threatening phone calls and noticed he was being stalked by mysterious men—to the point where he decided to move out of his New York City apartment.
These reports ultimately did bring Weinstein down. He was fired from his namesake distribution company (which has since filed for bankruptcy), ejected from the Film Academy (among other honorifics that have been stripped from him), and is reportedly on the brink of arrest by the New York Police Department. He is also being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department and Scotland Yard. After the stories broke, he hunkered down in Scottsdale, Arizona, flitting in and out of rehab for sex-addiction therapy and anger management. And to think mere months ago, Weinstein was laughing off the allegations by saying that the stories about him sounded “so good I want to buy the movie rights.” As the adage goes, be careful what you wish for.
Get Vanity Fairs HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Yohana DestaYohana Desta is a Hollywood writer for VanityFair.com.
