Leo DiCaprio snaps up the rights to a movie about the VW Emissions scandal

[Master Disaster]

This is really not a joke...

When Leonardo DiCaprio heard about the VW emissions scandal he saw a hit in the making, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

DiCaprio's production company Appian Way has teamed up with Paramount to buy the rights to the VW emission scandal. Well, the rights to a book proposed by journalist Jack Ewing called Too Big To Fail.

In his book, Ewing -- who has been the Frankfurt bureau chief for Bloomberg's BusinessWeek since 1999 -- wants to investigate how a "more, better, faster" ethos among car companies led to the current crisis.

A US Environmental Protection Agency investigation revealed in September that Volkswagen had tampered with its diesel cars so to lower emissions readings. Eleven million cars worldwide, and 1.2m in the UK were involved in the debacle that will cost at least £4.8bn, with fines of up to £10bn or more possible.

The company maintains that only a few developers knew about the manipulated cars and that top management couldn't have been involved, though the group's CEO Martin Winterkorn has since resigned.

Volkswagen is set to recall all affected cars in January. The UK boss Paul Higgs said 400,000 UK cars need their fuel injectors fixed, and that the first faulty car was sold in 2008.

Leonardo DiCaprio at New York's People's Climate MarchRob Kim/Getty

When Leonardo DiCaprio heard about the VW emissions scandal he saw a hit in the making, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

DiCaprio's production company Appian Way has teamed up with Paramount to buy the rights to the VW emission scandal. Well, the rights to a book proposed by journalist Jack Ewing called Too Big To Fail.

In his book, Ewing -- who has been the Frankfurt bureau chief for Bloomberg's BusinessWeek since 1999 -- wants to investigate how a "more, better, faster" ethos among car companies led to the current crisis.

A US Environmental Protection Agency investigation revealed in September that Volkswagen had tampered with its diesel cars so to lower emissions readings. Eleven million cars worldwide, and 1.2m in the UK were involved in the debacle that will cost at least £4.8bn, with fines of up to £10bn or more possible.

The company maintains that only a few developers knew about the manipulated cars and that top management couldn't have been involved, though the group's CEO Martin Winterkorn has since resigned.

Volkswagen is set to recall all affected cars in January. The UK boss Paul Higgs said 400,000 UK cars need their fuel injectors fixed, and that the first faulty car was sold in 2008.

This drama is perfect for the big screen, DiCaprio thinks. It's expected he will produce the VW film alongside Jennifer Davisson Killoran -- known for producing The Ides of March and Red Riding Hood -- according to the Hollywood Reporter. It's not yet known if DiCaprio will feature in the film, which doesn't have a proposed writer, director or cast. It's also possible that the movie might never appear -- rights to books are often purchased and eventually resold, or left in production limbo.

DiCaprio recently signed a multi-year deal with Netflix to produce environmental films, after the success of Virunga, a movie about the national park of the same name in eastern Congo.

"There's never been a more critical time for our planet or more of a need for gifted storytellers to help us all make sense of the issues we face. Through this partnership with Netflix, I hope to give documentary filmmakers doing urgent and important work the chance to have their films seen immediately by audiences all around the world," DiCaprio said in a statement in March.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-10/13/dicaprio-vw-emissions-film

Seriously? If I'm honest about it Leo is a good actor whose made some really good movies but this is just dumb.

Whose gonna watch a movie about rogue engineers in a car company?

Thoughts?

[Eroda]

people watched a movie about investment bankers or whatever 

[Mujteba]

Still not winning an Oscar...

[RevoltTrain]

Hopefully he finally gets his oscar

[Master Disaster]

people watched a movie about investment bankers or whatever

That movie was about America's most famous fraudster, not about investment banking.

The guy was really famous before they made the movie about his life.

[Sauron]

Rogue engineers? Management knew about it, there's no way they didn't. Why would two random employees risk their career and freedom over something like this? They wouldn't even have the power to do it by themselves.

[Guest Kloaked]

We all think this is dumb, but this stuff has been done before and it'll continue to go on.

 

For example, there are books that cost $40 that are written about things that could be summed up in a single sentence - people still buy it up.

[Misanthrope]

Blood Diamonds 2: Carbon Diamonds.....wait....scratch that it doesn't works.

[Real_PhillBert]

This movie is going to be a gas.

[Master Disaster]

Rogue engineers? Management knew about it, there's no way they didn't. Why would two random employees risk their career and freedom over something like this? They wouldn't even have the power to do it by themselves.

I wholeheartedly agree but I was calling it based on the current account of what happened. I'm damn sure over time more details will emerge that change our understanding of the events.

[Maslofski]

he might just resell them for more

[escape093]

Maybe I'll make a movie about Xbox controllers, or the £1 coin in my back pocket, or the 14th pencil that I've ever owned. I don't watch movies or TV, so I'm pretty sure that dumber stuff has been made than that.