‘Spotlight’ Director Tom McCarthy to Turn Podcast ‘S-Town’ Into a Film

Director Tom McCarthy made a name for himself as a character actor, mostly playing dicks in films like Meet the Parents, Good Night and Good Luck, and 2012. Then his 2003 directorial debut, The Station Agent, made him a big name on the indie circuit, leading him to bigger and better films like The Visitor and, eventually, Best Picture winner Spotlight.

Now, according to Deadline, McCarthy is setting his sights on turning the hit 2017 podcast S-Town—from the creators of Serial and This American Life—into a feature film. The seven episode podcast dealt with the exploits of Woodstock, Alabama native John B. McLemore, who contacts a producer of This American Life to let him know that there was a murder and cover-up in his hometown several years ago. When producer and eventual podcast host Brian Reed eventually travels to Woodstock, he discovers that there was no murder or cover-up, but there is indeed something very strange going on with Mr. McLemore.

It's riveting stuff, though I don't know how they're going to condense the seven hour podcast into a two hour film without sacrificing lots of detail. But such is the burden of any adaptation of a longer work. The best ones almost always serve as two hour commercials for the longer version—be it a book, podcast, TV series, etc—and the more people that discover S-Town, the better. Give it a listen if you get a chance, it's truly gripping stuff.