Spotlight’s Tom McCarthy to direct film adaptation of S-Town podcast

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Everyone loves a great true crime podcast that ventures down wildly unexpected paths, much like “Serial” and “S-Town.” They’ve been lauded as some of the best podcasts around, and soon we will see all the mystery and intrigue play out on the big screen as the latter will be getting its own movie adaptation with Oscar-winner Tom McCarthy in talks to helm.

Deadline got the goods that Participant Media has acquired the rights to “S-Town” and are in negotiations with McCarthy to direct with playwright Samuel Hunter in talks to write the script. The podcast comes from the folks over at “This American Life”, who will also produce the movie.

Hosted by Brian Reed, “S-Town” starts out as the story of a man named John B. McLemore who hated his small town in Alabama (thus naming it “Shit-Town”) and reached out to Reed to solve a murder. McLemore felt the murder mystery was at the heart of all the cruelty that had plagued town and wanted Reed to investigate the son of a wealthy family. Soon the story spiraled into something much larger, involving more murder, feuds and all manner of dastardly deeds.

McCarthy is a wonderful director with a strong humanist style that will flesh out all the characters and intricacies of the complex story at the heart of "S-Town." I love a great mystery story as much as the next person, and "S-Town" is one I highly recommend. My hope is that the movie version offers a fresh way of looking at this story, making it seem shocking and surprising all over again.