Movie on Catholic church molestation scandal gets director, screenwriter

By Doug Most, Globe Staff

The story about how the Catholic Church’s long coverup of child molestation unfolded and came to light is one step closer to becoming a movie. The production companies Anonymous Content and Rocklin/Faust, which plan to make the movie based on the stories of the Boston Globe journalists who uncovered the scandal, has hired a director and screenwriter to keep the project moving.

Tom McCarthy, an actor and director, and also a Boston College grad, who costarred in “The Wire” as an ethically challenged journalist, and has directed “The Station Agent,” “Win, Win,” and “The Visitor,” among other projects, is on board for the untitled project, along with screenwriter Josh Singer .

“This is a story that feels like it has to be told,” McCarthy, who grew up in a large Irish Catholic family in New Jersey, told us Thursday.

He said he was especially drawn to the story because of his connection to BC, where he came to see the influence of the Catholic Church.

“It’s such a great reminder of how essential investigative journalism is today,” said McCarthy.

The project, described as being in the mold of “All the President’s Men,” focuses on the efforts of the Globe reporters, including Spotlight Team reporters Michael Rezendes, Sacha Pfeiffer , and Matt Carroll, along with Spotlight Team Editor Walter “Robby” Robinson, project editor Ben Bradlee Jr., and Globe Editor Marty Baron. The Globe eventually discovered that Cardinal Bernard Law , America’s Senior Catholic Prelate, had hidden years of serial abuse by moving guilty priests from one parish to another where the priests often abused again. Law resigned from a Vatican post in 2011. The articles won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service and set off a wave of similar allegations and revelations around the world.