Dreamworks to make film on Globe's expose on Catholic church scandal

Nicole Sperling
Los Angeles Times
April 2, 2013

Looks like the Boston Globe's yearlong investigation into the Catholic Church's coverup of its pedophile priests in Massachusetts will be turned into a feature film.

Dreamworks Studios and Participant Media announced Tuesday that they have acquired the life rights to the Boston Globe's "Spotlight Team" of reporters and editors who spent a year interviewing victims and reviewing thousands of pages of documents, discovering years of coverup by Catholic Church leadership.

Their reporting lead to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law and led to other unveilings of church coverups around the world. It also earned the team a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2003.

Tom McCarthy ("Win Win") has signed on to direct and co-write the script with Josh Singer, who most recently wrote the Wikileaks drama "The Fifth Estate" for Dreamworks and director Bill Condon.

The Spotlight team includes former Globe editor Marty Baron, special projects editor Ben Bradlee Jr., Spotlight Team editor Walter "Robby" Robinson and reporters Michael Rezendes, Sacha Pfeiffer and Matt Carroll.

Said Dreamworks president of production Holly Bario in a release, "The story of how this team of editors and reporters came to uncover the truth will make a dramatic and compelling film."