The VW emissions scandal is still playing out (much to VW’s misery) but already Leonardo DiCaprio has reportedly snapped up the rights for a movie.
Paramount Pictures and DiCaprio’s production company Appian Way are said to be the new owners of the film rights, having acquired them from Jack Ewing, a European economics correspondent for the International New York Times.
Ewing is about to write a book on the scandal, which saw Volkswagen manipulate software to allow its cars to be up to 40 times more polluting than allowed.
The unnamed title has allegedly already been sold to publishing house WW Norton & Company for a six-figure sum. It will focus on the “more, better, faster” ethos said to be behind one of the biggest cases of fraud in corporate history.
It is unclear when the movie might surface, if at all, and even less clear if DiCaprio will help produce it or actually be one of its stars (the latter would certainly help with box office appeal).
Current estimations see the VW scandal costing around £36 billion pounds, with 1.2 million vehicles affected by the ‘defeat device’ in the UK – a third of which are said to need physical modifications to fix.
The Titanic star and teen heartthrob is no stranger to clean transport. He partnered with Venturi to launch a Formula E racing team and was one of the first Hollywood celebrities to drive a Toyota Prius.
Exactly how a movie about cheating diesel vehicle emissions will be made interesting to watch is anyone’s guess, but there’s no disputing the gravity of the subject.
Then again, a film about stock brokering must’ve sounded dull on paper but The Wolf of Wall Street turned out fine.
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