N.Y. Times' Harvey Weinstein Story to Become Movie From Annapurna, Plan B

Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey's coverage earned the duo a Pulitzer Prize for their stories on the mogul's alleged abuses.

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.

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 teamed to pick up the screen rights from the reporters and The New York Times.

Production-management company Anonymous Content reps the Times. It previously produced Spotlight, the Oscar-winning movie about The Boston Globe's investigation into cases of widespread and systemic child sex abuse in the Boston area by numerous Roman Catholic priests, but is not involved in producing this new project.

While there is no writer or filmmaker on board, Plan B and Annapurna are not aiming to tell the tale of Weinstein or his purported crimes, but rather how the reporters faced down threats and intimidation to push through with one of the most important stories of the decade. Movies such as All the President’s Men and Spotlight are the touchstones for the project.

Kantor and Twohey’s exploits earned the duo a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of Weinstein’s alleged abuses (shared with Ronan Farrow for his work for The New Yorker).

The New York Times’ story, which first appeared on Oct. 5, was headlined "Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades." It included on-the-record quotes and investigative reporting on alleged sexual abuse and cover-up by Weinstein, then one of the most awarded and respected movie moguls of the modern age.

Kantor and Twohey’s stories had an immediate impact: Weinstein was fired from his company and kicked out of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. His fall shattered closed doors as more women came forward to not only tell their Weinstein stories but to point out alleged abuses by others in the industry. The #MeToo and Time's Up movements were born in the wake of the claims.