Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is not cooperating on either the paper’s documentary or the book, sources tell Variety and has his own film and book in the works, sparking tensions inside the newsroom over the competing projects, reports Tatiana Siegel of Variety.
Siegel reports, “It is not uncommon for dueling Hollywood projects to emerge following a high-profile news event. For instance, the 2018 Thai cave rescue spawned multiple onscreen incarnations including Ron Howard’s ‘Thirteen Lives’ and the Netflix series ‘Thai Cave Rescue,’ while competing Harvey Weinstein exposés in the New York Times and New Yorker resulted in separate books, a Universal film and HBO docuseries. What is unique is for the rivaling efforts to come from the same news outlet. Adding a further wrinkle, CAA represents all of the parties including Gershkovich, Parkinson, Hinshaw, the Journal and even Gershkovich’s mother, who has her own book in the works.
“‘Evan will not participate, and it’s put everybody in a very funny spot,’ says one knowledgeable source who adds that the Journal had spent a significant amount of money to capture footage for the documentary. (The Journal and all parties, including Gershkovich, declined comment.)”
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