Movie deal for hit US podcast S-Town with Spotlight’s Tom McCarthy mooted as director

HIT US podcast S-Town is set for a big screen version after the rights were acquired by a film production company.

According to Deadline, Participant Media are in discussions with the director of the Academy Award winning film Spotlight, Tom McCarthy, over taking the helm of the project.

Investigative journalism podcast S-Town, released in March 2017, was hosted by Brian Reed and created by the producers behind Serial and This American Life.

It began with a letter from a man in Woodstock, Alabama, asking for the journalists at This American Life to investigate an alleged murder in his hometown.

After conversing with the man, John B. McLemore, for months via email,  Reed travelled to the town to investigate.

While there, he concluded that there had been no murder, but grew closer to McLemore and began to unravel the man’s life and character.

The seven episode series was a compelling, and at times upsetting, listen.

The podcast was downloaded a record-breaking 10 million times in four days, receiving mixed critical reviews.

While most agreed it was an incredible and culturally important piece of work, many critics argued that it was too invasive on a vulnerable man’s life and ‘voyeuristic’.