Almost four years after journalists Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor dropped the explosive New York Times report outing Harvey Weinstein as a serial sexual predator, a Hollywood movie is finally being spun out of the story that changed the industry forever. Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan are set to star as Twohey and Kantor in “She Said,” a new drama film being set up at Universal Pictures and adapted from the New York Times bestseller “She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement.” IndieWire has confirmed the project with Universal. Deadline first reported the news.
Production on “She Said” will kick off this summer with director Maria Schrader, the German actress and filmmaker who helmed Netflix’s beloved series “Unorthodox.” The screenplay comes from Rebecca Lenkiewicz, the co-screenwriter behind Academy Award Best Foreign Language Film winner “Ida” as well as the drama “Disobedience.” Lenkiewicz also served as a lead writer on Steve McQueen’s acclaimed Amazon series “Small Axe.”
Rights were first optioned to the book “She Said” by Annapurna Pictures and Plan B Entertainment, under their co-production agreement, back in 2018. Annapurna’s Oscar nominee Megan Ellison will executive produce the film alongside Sue Naegle. Meanwhile, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner (Best Picture Oscar winners for “12 Years a Slave”) will produce for Plan B.
The film, like the book, is said to focus not on Harvey Weinstein or the scandal itself, but instead on the all-women cadre of journalists who faced down intimidation and legal threats to break the bombshell report, which published on October 5, 2017. “She Said” is also reported to be told in a procedural style similar to Best Picture winner “Spotlight” and nominee “All the President’s Men,” two of the most celebrated films ever made about journalism’s power to bring corruption to light.
While Mulligan and Kazan have never appeared onscreen together, they did co-star in a Broadway adaptation of Chekhov’s “The Seagull” back in 2008. Later, in 2018, Carey Mulligan starred in “Wildlife,” co-written and produced by Kazan, and directed by her partner Paul Dano. This year, Carey Mulligan received waves of applause and kudos, as well as a Best Actress Academy Award nomination, for her performance in “Promising Young Woman.”
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