DreamWorks Studios are moving away from talking animals and other family friendly film fare, and have acquired the film rights to the story of the cover-up of paedophile priests in the Catholic Church. Tom McCarthy has signed up to direct what is bound to be a highly controversial film, while Josh Singer – who wrote the WikiLeaks movie The Fifth Estate – is writing the screenplay. The film will be made up from the accounts of reporters and editors from the Boston Globe, the paper who conducted the year-long investigation into the cover-up.

Reporters spent the time extensively interviewing victims and reviewing thousands of pages of documents and discovered years of cover-up by Church leaders. The report eventually resulted in the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law, who had kept hidden years of child abuse by other priests.

DreamWorks president Holly Bario said: “The Boston Globe’s coverage of the Catholic priest scandal opened the door to a bigger story that had worldwide ramifications. The story of how this team of editors and reporters came to uncover the truth will make a dramatic and compelling film”. We couldn’t agree more.