Principal photography on Spotlight, the next movie from writer/director Thomas McCarthy (The Visitor), began today in Boston.  Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, Stanley Tucci, John Slattery, Brian d’Arcy James, Billy Crudup, and Jamey Sheridan star in the drama.  The script by McCarthy and Josh Singer (The Fifth Estate) centers on the Boston Globe investigative team who in 2001 fought "to expose the Boston Archdiocese’s systemic cover up of sexual abuse of children by ordained priests."

Hit the jump for the press release with all the details.

PARTICIPANT MEDIA’S “SPOTLIGHT” STARRING MARK RUFFALO, MICHAEL KEATON, RACHEL McADAMS, LIEV SCHREIBER AND STANLEY TUCCI GOES TO CAMERA IN BOSTON BEFORE LENSING IN TORONTO

JOHN SLATTERY, BRIAN d’ARCY JAMES, BILLY CRUDUP AND JAMEY SHERIDAN JOIN CAST

spotlight-rachel-mcadams

(September 25 – Boston, MA) Principal photography begins today on Academy Award®-nominee Thomas McCarthy’s riveting drama SPOTLIGHT, starring Mark Ruffalo (The Normal Heart, The Kids are All Right), Michael Keaton (Birdman), Rachel McAdams (Midnight in Paris), Liev Schreiber (Ray Donovan) and Stanley Tucci (The Hunger Games). Written by McCarthy and Josh Singer (The Fifth Estate), SPOTLIGHT is a co-production of Anonymous Content and Rocklin/Faust, financed by Participant Media, and will be distributed by Open Road Films in the U.S. and by Entertainment One internationally.

Joining the cast are John Slattery (Mad Men), Brian d’Arcy James (Smash), Billy Crudup (Blood Ties) and Jamey Sheridan (Homeland).

SPOTLIGHT will shoot in Boston for one week and then head to Toronto where filming will continue until the end of November.

Thomas McCarthy received an Oscar® nomination for the screenplay Up, won a BAFTA award for the script of The Station Agent which he also directed and was named best director at the Independent Spirit Awards for The Visitor.

In 2001, the Boston Globe began an investigation that would rock the city and shock the world.  SPOTLIGHT tells the story of that investigation, the story of Marty Baron (Schreiber), Ben Bradlee Jr. (Slattery) and the four members of the Globe’s investigative Spotlight team - Walter Robinson (Keaton), Mike Rezendes (Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (McAdams) and Matt Carroll (James) - who would sacrifice everything to expose the Boston Archdiocese’s systemic cover up of sexual abuse of children by ordained priests. For years, whispers of scandal were ignored by society, the media, by police and by the legal system. Silenced by shame, victims of sexual abuse often became victims of suicide. For their commitment to truth, the Spotlight team received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

SPOTLIGHT sheds new light on the investigation and the men and women who were integral to uncovering the story. It points to the necessity of good, local journalism, the type of journalism that has been decimated over the past fifteen years by the decline of the newspaper industry.  SPOTLIGHT explores the larger themes of complicity and deference, attempting to grapple with the question of how an evil so widespread could go undetected for so long.

SPOTLIGHT’s producers are Steve Golin and Michael Sugar of Anonymous Content, and Nicole Rocklin and Blye Faust of Rocklin/Faust. Participant Media’s Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King are executive producers, with Michael Bederman, Open Road Films’ Tom Ortenberg and Peter Lawson, and Entertainment One’s Patrice Theroux and Harold van Lier. Kate Churchill is co-producer and David Mizner is associate producer.