Two-time Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan are in talks to star as Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, the New York Times reporters who penned the revealing article in 2017 that brought about the downfall of industry mogul Harvey Weinstein as well as the establishment of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movement.
The developing project starring Mulligan and Kazan is from Universal Pictures and will run with the title ‘She Said’. ‘Unorthodox’ director Maria Schrader is on board to direct from a script by Oscar winner Rebecca Lenkiewicz.
Per Deadline’s report, the film will centre entirely on an all-women team of journalists who persevered through threats of litigation and intimidation.
Annapurna Pictures and Plan B Entertainment acquired production rights over the film in 2018 through their co-production deal. Megan Ellison and Sue Naegle will executive produce under Annapurna, while Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner produce via Plan B.
Lexi Barta, vice president of production at Universal will oversee the project for the studio.
‘She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement’, which is one of the Times’ bestsellers was an investigative work that captured the sexual misconducts of Weinstein. It featured first hand testaments by Hollywood actresses, who had fallen victim to Weinstein’s misdeeds as well as evidence of backdoor payments made by the film executive and his team to cover up his acts.
Aside the #MeToo and #TimesUp establishments after the reveal, Weinstein was also removed from The Weinstein Company where he served as co-chairman and was later sentenced to 23 years in prison on the account of rape.
Production for ‘She Said’ is set to begin this summer.
Mulligan, repped by CAA currently has her hands busy on Johan Renck’s ‘Spaceman’ opposite fellow Oscar-nominee Adam Sandler. She will later pair with Bradley Cooper for ‘Maestro’, a Netflix original based on the life of Leonard Bernstein. Mulligan will play wife to Cooper (Bernstein).
Kazan on the other hand recently starred in HBO’s critically-acclaimed limited series ‘The Plot Against America’, the Coen Brothers’ ‘Ballad of Buster Scruggs’ and Oscar-nominated ‘The Big Sick’.
Mulligan and Kazan were last reported together for a project in 2018, where Mulligan starred in ‘Wildlife’ co-wrote and produced by Kazan. Prior to that, the pair had already worked together in 2008 on the Broadway project ‘The Seagull’.
