Paramount and Indian Paintbrush Acquire Rights to New Yorker Article A MURDER FORETOLD

After an intense auction, Paramount has teamed up with Indian Paintbrush to acquire the screen rights to David Grann’s New Yorker article A Murder Foretold. The harrowing piece tells the story of a string of high-level murders in Guatemala, and the wealthy businessman who posthumously brought about the crackdown on the violence in the country and brought to justice those responsible. Guatemala was raveged by killings “routinely perpetrated by everyone from secret police to drug dealers who acted with impunity.”

The businessman had videocassettes passed around at his funeral, wherein he accused the president, his assassinated wife and other aides of being implicated in his own murder. Deadline reports that the article, published on April 4^th, went out to studios last week and the Paramount-Indian Paintbrush team closed the deal. Grann is no stranger to Hollywood adaptations of his work, as his article-turned-book The Lost City of Z is has been in development with writer/director James Gray for quite some time. Head over to the New Yorker to read Grann’s article A Murder Foretold in its entirety.