Brad Pitt is producing an adaptation of Edwin Black’s nonfiction bestseller IBM and the Holocaust.  The book examines how the company’s chief executive, Thomas Watson, formed an alliance with Nazi Germany in 1933 to help identify Jews for extermination.  It’s harrowing material, and Pitt previously set the project up at HBO where it was in development as late as this past January with a script by Marcus Hinchey (All Good Things).  The feature film has now left the cable channel, and Pitt is looking to find IBM and the Holocaust a new home through his Plan B production company either on cable TV or as a theatrically released film.

Vulture reports that Pitt has attached himself to star in order to attract directors, but it’s entirely possible that he might not take a role in front of the camera once the project gets going.  Hit the jump to read a synopsis for the book.

The NPR radio series This American Life has served as inspiration for many a recent screenplay (most notably The Informant!), a list which now includes Heretics from Marcus Hinchey (All Good Things).  Hinchey’s screenplay is based on the 2005 American Life episode of the same name, which centers on “Carlton Pearson, who was a rising star among evangelicals until he was ostracized by his own church and declared a heretic after he started preaching that there is no Hell.”

Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace) is co-producing the project under his Apparatus banner, and may eventually direct.  Hit the jump for a statement from TAL writer/producer/host Ira Glass and a full synopsis.