Netflix has teamed with John Wells Productions to mount a feature film about the Panama Papers, the largest single leak of data in government and corporate history They have aligned with German investigative journalists Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, who broke the story and led the team that uncovered The Panama Papers. Netflix has acquired their book, Panama Papers: Breaking The Story Of How The Worlds Rich and Powerful Hide Their Money.
The film will tell how, using an anonymous source known as John Doe, they teamed with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists to release 11 million documents sourced from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. The revelation of the documents bared the financial machinations of rulers and royalty, compete with illegal activities connected to a swarm of banks and private individuals including director Pedro Almodovar, Jackie Chan and Emma Watson. Icelands Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson resigned immediately after leaked documents showed how Gunnlaugsson and his wife set up an offshore shell company in 2007 in the British Virgin Islands; he then sold his half of the company to his wife for $1 on the last day of 2009 to shield them from a new law that would have required him to declare his ownership as a conflict of interest.
Wells and Claire Rudnick Polstein will produce the film, and Zach Studein will be exec producer. The journalists will work closely in shaping the movie, and ICIJ deputy director Marina Walker and ICIJs D.C. head Gerard Ryle will also be part of the mix.
This is the second major movie deal to come together on the Panama Papers. Steven Soderbergh will direct and Scott Z. Burns will write a film based on Secrecy World, an upcoming book that Pulitzer-winning journalist Jake Bernstein is writing for Henry Holt and Company, with Lawrence Grey, Michael Sugar, Burns and Soderbergh producing.
More at the link http://deadline.com/2016/07/panama-papers-movie-netflix-john-wells-icij-producers-1201792443/