Steve Soderbergh is producing and may direct an untitled movie about the Panama Papers along with Lawrence Grey’s Grey Matter Productions and Anonymous Content.
Grey, Michael Sugar, Scott Burns and Soderbergh are producing, with Burns writing the script. Sugar was one of the four producers who received a best picture Academy Award for “Spotlight” in February.
The project is based on the upcoming book “The Secrecy World” by Jake Bernstein, senior reporter on the team that broke the Panama Papers story. The book will be published by Henry Holt in fall of 2017.
UTA came on board in April to begin selling the film rights to “Secrecy World,” an account of the leak of 11 million documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca about dubious global financial transactions. The Panama Papers were leaked by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and provided details of how the wealthy and powerful used the law firm to escape scrutiny.
Grey Matter Productions bought the screen rights to the book.
Grey is a producer of New Line’s upcoming horror project “Lights Out.” Burns teamed with Soderbergh on “Contagion,” “The Informant!” and “Side Effects.”
Soderbergh is filming the heist movie “Logan Lucky,” starring Daniel Craig, Channing Tatum and Hilary Swank. He also directed “Magic Mike” and the TV movie “Behind the Candelabra.”
Bernstein won a Pulitzer Prize in 2011 for his book “The Wall Street Money Machine.”
The news was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.
